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.
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 plantthat reuses wet kitchen waste.
