Need a Clean Restroom? There’s an App for That

A new phone app helps women in Mumbai, India find clean restrooms when they are out in public, European Cleaning Journal reports.

The Woloo app, created by a Mumbai social enterprise, pinpoints clean restrooms in restaurants, cafes, and salons within two kilometers of the user’s location. According to Woloo’s co-founder, Manish Kelshikar, only a small percentage of Mumbai’s public restrooms are designated for women, and among these ever fewer are clean or safe to use.

The Woloo social enterprise has people regularly visiting women’s restrooms, making sure they are well-lit and have cross ventilation and nonslip flooring, as well as adequate supplies of soap, sanitizer, and tissue.

“Restaurants and cafes have discovered that by offering public bathrooms they are receiving elevated visitor numbers,” Kelshikar said. “Clean washrooms result in happier clients who will come again.”

The enterprise also is working on establishing new women’s restrooms in the city’s metro and railway stations. The restrooms will be equipped with security cameras, sanitary towel dispensers, infant-feeding rooms, and infant-changing stations.