Marachi Subburaman
(Environmental Protection)
About Marachi Subburaman
- Marachi Subburaman, the founder of the Society for Community Organisation and People’s Education (SCOPE), was awarded Padma Shri, 2021 for his contribution to society.
- A proponent of eco-friendly sanitation and water conservation, Mr. Subburaman, a Chemistry graduate has been active in social work since the 1970s when he joined Village Reconstruction Organisation (VRO), an NGO in Andhra Pradesh.
- The NGO works towards the construction of cost-effective homes in rural areas.
Social Work
- SCOPE was founded in 1986, and since then, has been working on providing toilets and reducing open defecation in rural areas, besides empowering women with income-generation skills.
- It has installed more than 20,000 closed-system Eco-San flush-less toilets in Tamil Nadu alone, and over one lakh units across 26 states in the country.
- The bio-waste is recycled as agricultural manure.
- He has converted his residence into a working showcase of eco-friendly lifestyle choices. In addition to a rainwater harvesting unit that supplies 2,000 litres of drinking water, the house has a low-tech sanitary napkin incinerator, environmentally sound toilets and a bio-gas plant that reuses wet kitchen waste.
