LooCafe is an Indian

public toilet A public toilet, restroom, bathroom or washroom is a room or small building with toilets (or urinals) and sinks for use by the general public. The facilities are available to customers, travelers, employees of a business, school pupils or pris ...

model, built out of

shipping container A shipping container is a container with strength suitable to withstand shipment, storage, and handling. Shipping containers range from large reusable steel boxes used for intermodal shipments to the ubiquitous corrugated box design, corrugated b ...

s with a

point of sale The point of sale (POS) or point of purchase (POP) is the time and place at which a retail transaction is completed. At the point of sale, the merchant calculates the amount owed by the customer, indicates that amount, may prepare an invoice f ...

attached with additional features. The company, legally incorporated as Ixora Corporate Services, works in the

WASH Wash or the Wash may refer to: Industry and sanitation * WASH or WaSH, "water, sanitation and hygiene", three related public health issues * Wash (distilling), the liquid produced by the fermentation step in the production of distilled beverages ...

industry. LooCafe is designed to end

open defecation Open defecation is the human practice of defecating outside ("in the open") rather than into a toilet. People may choose fields, bushes, forests, ditches, streets, canals, or other open spaces for defecation. They do so either because they do ...

and

public urination Public urination refers to Urination, urinating in a public space without using designated facilities such as toilets or urinals. This includes urinating against trees, lamp posts, house walls, doorways, or gardens. In modern times, public urina ...

onto buildings, sidewalks, or streets, and create access to public toilets under the

Swachh Bharat Mission Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, or Clean India Mission is a country-wide campaign initiated by the Government of India on 2 October 2014 to eliminate open defecation and improve solid waste management and to create Open Defe ...

History

Founded in 2018 by Abhishek Nath, LooCafe started from

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

and now are currently operational in multiple Indian states and districts, including

Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory since 2019 * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered by India as a state from 1952 to 2019 * Jammu and Kashmir (prin ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

and

Telangana Telangana is a States and union territories of India, state in India situated in the Southern India, south-central part of the Indian subcontinent on the high Deccan Plateau. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, ele ...

Model

Most

s in India fail because of

maintenance The technical meaning of maintenance involves functional checks, servicing, repairing or replacing of necessary devices, equipment, machinery, building infrastructure and supporting utilities in industrial, business, and residential installa ...

issues and a variety of government challenges. LooCafes are designed to be

sustainable Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...

models because of their business model. Revenue from the

café A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café (), is an establishment that serves various types of coffee, espresso, latte, americano and cappuccino, among other hot beverages. Many coffeehouses in West Asia offer ''shisha'' (actually called ''nargi ...

helps them sustain the public toilets that are built towards the back out of the shipping container. The usage of IoT devices and

facility management Facility management or facilities management (FM) is a professional discipline focused on coordinating the use of space, infrastructure, people, and organization. Facilities management ensures that physical assets and environments are managed effe ...

technology have also helped them expand their footprint to 350 units across India. In 2019, they won

Confederation of Indian Industry The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is a Non-governmental organization, non-governmental business and industry organisation and advocacy group headquartered in New Delhi, India, founded in 1895. CII is a membership-based organisation. ...

awards.

Institutions

LooCafes have worked with the

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lang ...

Design Week, and the

Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is the civic body that oversees Hyderabad, the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It is the local government for the city of Hyderabad. It is one of the largest munici ...

(GHMC). For their social work a book was also launched titled ''Toilet Tales''. The toilets have operated during the

COVID-19 pandemic in India The COVID-19 pandemic in India is a part of the COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide pandemic of COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). As of , according to Indian government ...

with respect to disinfection work for public facilities.

LooCafe models

File:LooCafe Tank Bund, Hyderabad.jpg, LooCafe installed at

Tank Bund Road The Tank Bund Road is a road in Secunderabad, Hyderabad, India. The Tank Bund dams Hussain Sagar lake on the eastern side and connects the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad. It has become an attraction with 33 statues of famous people fr ...

File:Loocafe mini.jpg, LooCafe Mini Model

References

{{Human waste elimination Toilets Water supply and sanitation in India 2018 establishments in India