Google and India’s Ministry of Urban Development have teamed up to create a toilet locator tool for Google Maps. The app is now going to show toilet locations to users in India. This partnership seeks to tackle the country’s infamous toilet problem as more than 70 percent of households don’t have one of their own. With smartphone penetration rapidly increasing in the country, the tool will help people locate one very easily.
Public Radio International reports that more than 60 percent of the 1.2 billion people that reside in India still don’t have access to a proper toilet, which means whenever they have to go, they attend to nature’s call out in the open.
The toilet tracker in Google Maps will help them easily find one. They can search for toilets by typing the relevant keywords in English or the native language. Maps is then going to bring up toilet locations in the vicinity, they will be displayed in the same manner as malls, restaurants, hotels, and other establishments are shown in Maps.
“The system being put in place relies heavily on crowdsourcing, with people’s feedback helping fuel it,” said an official of the ministry, adding that users will also be able to review those locations. This tool is going to be available to users in New Delhi by the end of this month and will later be expanded to other cities across the country.
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