Shri S. Damodaran, totally devoted his lifetime since 1987 only to promote household toilet facilities, safe drinking water, and Menstrual Hygiene Promotion to the rural, urban poor, people living in the coastal regions, tribal areas and in town panchayats by closely working with the Central Government, State Government and international donor organizations, including with CSR funds. He has been involved in all the Government total sanitation programs from the 1980s to Swachh Bharat Mission Program – 2014 till date.
Hailed from Woraiyur, Tiruchirappalli City, he founded Gramalaya and worked in the water and sanitation sector for more than three and a half decades and created role model projects in South India, and later on spread to different States by training more than 100 NGOs. Under his guidance, more than six lakhs household toilets were promoted through the various Government schemes like Central Rural Sanitation Program (from 1985 onwards), Total Sanitation Campaign, Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan, LCS (Low-cost Sanitation cum Scavengers Rehabilitation Program) and SBM Gramin which were sustainable models and are being used and maintained by the beneficiaries till to-day. He formulated a three-pronged strategy including health empowerment through toilets, safe drinking water and hygiene education and economic empowerment. This is done with the support of the Government, Corporates and donor organizations. His work through sustainable sanitation initiatives resulted in women and adolescent girls led a dignified life with privacy, safety and security.
The concept of Open defecation free village in India was first experimented in Thandavampatti village in Tiruchirappalli District which was recognized by the World Bank (WSP) as First Open Defecation Free village in India by a resolution passed at the Grama Sabha meeting on 26.1.2003 with 100 percent toilet coverage for all the households in the village including a ban on open defecation. Following this village, he was instrumental in declaring more than 300 villages and 187 slums in Tiruchirappalli City Corporation as ODF including first slum in Kalmandhai in 2002. In 2006, he developed a Center for Toilet Technology and Training at the Gramalaya Training Centre in a rural area which was later on replicated in more than 100 places in India showcasing different toilet models appropriate to different terrains and socio-economic status of the communities.
The concept of SHG women managed community pay and use toilets was introduced by him in the year 2000 which was still working successfully in Tiruchirappalli City Corporation on a self-sustainable basis. This was acknowledged in the twelfth Five Year plan document 2012 to 2017 as Faster, More Inclusive and Sustainable Growth by Government of India as one of role model projects in India. More than 60,000 SMART Toilets (Sustainable, Maintainable, Appropriate, Recyclable and Technically Perfect – SMART) were built in South India under his leadership. During the 1990s, with the support of WaterAid he developed girls friendly school toilet complexes and child friendly anganwadi toilets in the rural areas of Tiruchirappalli District.
Gramalaya is one of the National Key Resource Centres of the Ministry of Jal Shakthi, Government of India wherein a number of training and orientation program on water and sanitation technologies are organized by him, including three national-level workshops such as National-level Workshop on appropriate Toilet Technologies at Tiruchirappalli, National- level workshop on Role of NGOs and CSR in sanitation and two National-level – Menstrual Hygiene Management India Summit at New Delhi during September 2019 and in 2022 at Chennai.
The Menstrual reusable cloth pads he has designed and developed five years ago has reached the adolescent girls studying in Government Schools and the menstruating women in the rural and urban areas. Gramalaya has promoted girls friendly toilet complexes in 550 Government schools with incinerators for safe disposal of used sanitary napkins. So far more than 7,10,000 reusable cloth pads for menstrual hygiene were promoted by him that has saved our environment from unnecessary garbage heaps on the streets and saved our water bodies from pollution. Through household toilet promotion and hygiene education, he has empowered many women and adolescent girls economically, socially and on health aspects. For his dedication and consistent efforts in the field of water and sanitation, National Urban Water Award was given to Gramalaya in 2010 and Toilet Titan award was given to him in 2017 under Safaigiri Awards. The Government of India has announced Padma Shri Award to S.Damodaran in 2022 for his 38 years of service in the sanitation sector in South India.