Swachh Bharat Toilet Locator App for Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India
A public sanitation access app helping users locate nearby public toilets, developed for the Ministry of Urban Development, GOI, as part of the Swachh Bharat initiative.
Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India
Mobile Application
1 months
Mobile Application (Android/iOS), Geolocation Services, Crowdsourced Data Collection
Swachh Bharat Toilet Locator App for Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India
Mobile Application
Project Overview
Access to public sanitation facilities has long been a challenge across Indian cities and towns, with no centralized way for citizens to know where nearby public toilets were located, or whether they met basic hygiene and infrastructure standards. As part of the Swachh Bharat Mission's broader push toward improved public sanitation, the Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India, sought a digital solution to address this gap.
Neologicx developed the Swachh Bharat Toilet Locator App to address a simple but widespread problem: citizens often had no reliable way to find a nearby public toilet, while Urban Local Bodies lacked a unified digital mechanism to publish and maintain location information.
The solution combined a citizen-facing mobile experience with an administrative workflow for Urban Local Bodies — enabling toilets to be added and verified, mapped geographically, enriched with facility information, and supported by citizen feedback.
The broader Swachh Bharat toilet-location initiative subsequently evolved through a partnership between the Ministry and Google, with public-toilet information becoming accessible through Google Maps. By 2019, Google reported more than 57,000 public toilets across over 2,300 Indian cities available through Search and Maps — reflecting the scale and long-term impact of the foundation Neologicx helped build.
The initiative subsequently evolved into a Ministry–Google collaboration that made public-toilet information discoverable directly through Google Maps.
The Challenge
Finding a nearby public toilet can become a significant challenge when people are travelling, visiting unfamiliar locations, attending public events, or moving through busy urban areas. The problem becomes even more important when users need information not only about the location of a toilet, but also about its availability, facilities, operating hours, accessibility, and usage conditions.
At the time of the project, public sanitation information was distributed across different sources and there was no single, easily accessible digital experience through which citizens could discover nearby public toilets.
The challenge was therefore not simply to create a location finder. The larger requirement was to create a centralized digital layer for public sanitation infrastructure that could connect toilet locations with citizens and provide useful information at the point of need.
The platform also needed to support different user requirements. Users could require gender-specific facilities, information about whether a toilet was free or paid, available facilities, operating hours, and directions to reach the location.
Another important aspect was feedback. A location database alone cannot communicate whether a facility is useful, accessible, or well maintained. The solution therefore incorporated mechanisms for users to provide feedback and ratings, helping create actionable information around public sanitation facilities.
The project required a simple and accessible mobile experience capable of connecting location data, public infrastructure information, navigation, and citizen feedback into a single service.
The Solution
Neologicx developed the Swachh Bharat Toilet Locator App as a location-based public-service platform designed to connect citizens with public sanitation facilities.
The solution combined location discovery, facility information, navigation, and citizen feedback into a single mobile experience.
1. Nearby Toilet Discovery
The application allowed users to discover public toilets located around them.
Rather than requiring users to already know the location of a facility, the application used location-based discovery to surface relevant sanitation facilities in the user's vicinity.
2. Location-Based Search
The platform was designed around geospatial information, allowing toilet facilities to be associated with specific locations.
This created a structured digital representation of public sanitation infrastructure that could be searched and accessed through a mobile device.
3. Navigation Support
After identifying a suitable facility, users could obtain directions to reach the toilet.
This transformed the application from a simple database into a practical utility for people who needed immediate access to sanitation facilities.
4. Gender-Specific Discovery
The application incorporated gender selection as part of the user experience, enabling users to find facilities relevant to their requirements. Neologicx's project record specifically identifies gender selection as one of the app's capabilities.
5. Facility Information
The platform provided useful information about individual toilet facilities.
Historical government documentation associated with the initiative describes information including:
- Toilet type
- Free or paid usage
- Operating hours
- Available facility information
This helped users make more informed decisions before travelling to a particular facility.
6. Ratings & Citizen Feedback
The platform included mechanisms for users to provide feedback about toilet facilities.
Ratings helped surface the perceived quality of facilities, while citizen feedback created an additional layer of information beyond basic location data.
7. Photo Uploads
Users could contribute photographs of toilet facilities, creating a more community-driven information layer and helping other users understand the condition and appearance of facilities.
8. Centralized Sanitation Data
The project helped establish a structured collection of public sanitation locations.
This was important because the value of a toilet-locator service depends heavily on the availability and quality of its underlying location data.
Administrative Workflow for Urban Local Bodies
Beyond the citizen-facing app, the platform included an administrative layer for Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) — allowing authorized personnel to add new toilet locations, verify submitted entries, and maintain accurate facility data. This addressed a core gap: without a structured mechanism for ULBs to publish and update information, the underlying location database would have remained incomplete or outdated.
Key Features:
- Public toilet locator with geolocation search
- Administrative workflow enabling Urban Local Bodies to add and verify toilet listings
- Comprehensive database of public sanitation facilities across India
- Actionable user feedback collection for facility improvements
- Custom design crafted by Neologicx's in-house design team
What We Delivered
Public toilet locator with geolocation search
Comprehensive database of public sanitation facilities across India
Actionable user feedback collection for facility improvements
Custom design crafted by Neologicx's in-house design team
SBTL Admin application for ULB data collection, geotagging and verification
Integrated citizen and ULB platform for public toilet discovery and structured data management
Results & Outcome
The Swachh Bharat Toilet Locator project demonstrated how a focused mobile application could address a practical public-service problem by connecting citizens with public sanitation infrastructure.
By 2019, the broader initiative had scaled significantly: Google reported more than 57,000 public toilets across 2,300+ Indian cities made accessible through Search and Maps, building on the foundation established by the original platform.
The platform transformed public toilet discovery from a largely location-dependent process into a digital experience based on search, location, facility information, navigation, and citizen feedback.
The initiative also became closely associated with the Google Toilet Locator service. Government records show that in December 2016, the Ministry of Urban Development launched a Google Maps-based toilet locator covering Delhi, Gurugram, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Noida, Bhopal, and Indore, with plans to extend the facility to additional cities.
The project is particularly valuable as a Neologicx portfolio example because it demonstrates experience in building technology for government, civic infrastructure, public accessibility, and large-scale citizen-facing services.
Key Outcomes:
- Digitized discovery of public sanitation facilities
- Location-based public toilet search
- Improved access to facility information
- Navigation support for citizens
- Citizen feedback and rating mechanism
- Community-generated photo information
- Structured public sanitation data
- Foundation for broader toilet-location services
- Strong example of civic technology and public-service innovation
References:
- Locate Washrooms in Delhi Using Swachh Bharat Toilet Locator — Swachh India, NDTV
- Hunt for a Public Toilet Leads to App, Low-Down on All — The Indian Express
- Smart Ways of Government Service Delivery — eGov eLets Online
Project FAQs
1. What problem was the Swachh Bharat Toilet Locator App designed to solve?
2. How does the app build its database of facilities?
3. What happened to the app after its initial launch?
4. Who designed the app's interface and experience?
Tech Stack
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