India Philanthropy Initiative gears up to unclutter the country's sanitation concerns

Rohini Nilekani hosted a private discussion under the aegis of the India Philanthropy Initiative, focused on the role philanthropy can play in addressing issues in sanitation, in Mumbai on December 10, 2014.

This interaction was co-ordinated by Arghyam and Dasra, and included participation from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s India Country Office. Different sessions saw philanthropists including Rohini Nilekani, Rakesh Bharti Mittal (Vice Chairman, Bharti Enterprises), Rati Forbes (Director, Forbes Marshall),  Zarina Screwvala (Managing Trustee, Swades Foundation); a senior Government representative, Ms. Meena Rajiv Lochan, IAS, Director, Municipal Administration, Government of Maharashtra; eminent sector personalities including Joe Madiath (Founder, Gram Vikas), Dr. Renu Khosla (Director, CURE), Pratima Joshi (Founder, Shelter Associates) Divyang Waghela (Tata Trusts) and Myles Elledge (Senior Director for Global Programmes for RTI – a Gates Foundation Reinvent the Toilet Challenge grantee), along with Hari Menon (Deputy Director, Gates Foundation) and the senior leadership team of Arghyam share their perspectives and learnings from working in this space.

Participants included eminent philanthropists, family members and corporate executives. The sessions were interactive and saw an interesting exchange of views, experiences and ideas on working on actionable next steps to address issues in sanitation in the country.