New Delhi: For Dettol Banega Swasth India, a healthier India is also about the everyday systems that make clean and safe living possible. As we look back at 2025, the 9th Edition of the ISC-FICCI Sanitation Awards brought several such efforts into focus. The awards recognised work across WASH, waste management, water reuse, sanitation services, skilling and hygiene behaviour. The winners came from different parts of the country, but their work had one thing in common: finding practical ways to create lasting change.
Here are the sanitation champions who stood out in 2025.
Healing Himalayas Foundation: Taking on waste in the mountains
Category: Excellence in Build/Rebuild/Use of WASH and Plastic Waste Infrastructure Using Innovation
Healing Himalayas Foundation won for its Sustaining Paradise initiative in Himachal Pradesh. Launched in 2021, the programme has set up five Material Recovery Facilities in Koksar, Mansari, Rakcham, Pooh and Tabo. The initiative has achieved 95% source segregation and carried out more than 300 clean-up drives with 3,000+ volunteers. It has also removed more than 1,633 tonnes of legacy waste from trekking routes.
Chhindwara: Making rural sanitation services more accessible
Category: Excellence in Sustainable Maintenance and Community Management of WASH Systems
Zila Panchayat Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh was recognised for its Swachhata Saathi-WASH on Wheels Sewa. The initiative offers mechanised toilet cleaning services to schools, Anganwadi centres, Panchayat Bhawans, health centres, hostels and households. What began with three providers has grown to 35, with 790 Gram Panchayats divided into 34 service clusters. Digital booking, QR codes, GIS tools and modern equipment are also part of the model.
BOSON White Water: Giving treated wastewater another life
Category: Excellence in Wastewater Treatment and Reuse
BOSON White Water by Transwater Systems was recognised for its decentralised circular water model. The initiative converts treated wastewater into potable-quality water that meets BIS standards. With projects across Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Coimbatore, the system is already helping save more than 10 lakh litres of water a day and has recovered over 11 crore litres to date.
Zinc India Foundation: Treating sewage at city scale
Category: Excellence in Wastewater Treatment and Reuse
Zinc India Foundation was also a winner in the wastewater treatment category for its sewage treatment work in Udaipur.
The project, developed with the Udaipur Municipal Corporation and the Government of Rajasthan, has a total capacity of 60 MLD and treats nearly 80% of the city’s sewage. It also supports water reuse, organic manure production and rooftop solar power.
West Bengal: Turning plastic waste into a resource
Category: Excellence in Plastic Waste and Sustainable Resource Management
The Panchayat & Rural Development Department, West Bengal was recognised for its rural plastic waste management programme under SBM-G Phase II. The initiative covers 23 districts, 345 blocks, 3,340 Gram Panchayats and 38,186 villages. More than 974 MT of plastic has been used in the construction of around 700 km of rural roads. Women-led Self-Help Groups, NGOs and other local stakeholders also play a key role.
Gulshan Khan: Putting women at the heart of sanitation
Category: Women Changemakers in Sanitation Leadership
Gulshan Khan was recognised for her community-led waste management work in Saharanpur.
Her model focuses on household segregation, composting, recycling and community participation. The initiative expanded to more than 21,000 households across 12 wards, while over 88% of waste is recycled or composted. The model is now being scaled across Uttar Pradesh.
Pratham Education Foundation: Building WASH skills and livelihoods
Category: Best Skilling Initiative in WASH
Pratham Education Foundation won for its Plumbing: Waterworks Management & Sanitation Program.
Between 2022 and 2025, the programme trained more than 3,000 young people in plumbing, waterworks management and sanitation. It combines technical training with livelihood opportunities and has also focused on encouraging women to enter the sector.
Shree Vadod Primary School: Teaching hygiene early
Category: Special Focus on WASH in Schools
Shree Vadod Primary School, Rajkot, Gujarat was recognised for its long-running hygiene and cleanliness initiative.
The school uses practical demonstrations, cleanliness rallies, tree plantation drives and parent engagement to teach children about personal hygiene, toilet use and waste management. The number of beneficiaries grew from 180 in 2022-23 to 450 in 2024-25. The 2025 awards showed that sanitation is not limited to toilets or waste collection. It also means maintaining WASH systems, reusing water, managing plastic, creating livelihoods, changing behaviour and getting communities involved.
Download The Full Report: ISC-FICCI Sanitation Awards 2025
NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which in its Season 10 is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Ayushmann Khurrana. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In a world post COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental well-being, self-care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.
