New Delhi: Three robots are on a holy mission at the Maha Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj. Not to seek blessings, but to clean up after 40 crore visitors. Called Bandicoot, the robots are a Kerala-based startup’s solution to manual scavenging, which has claimed as many as 400 lives from 2019 to 2023.
“We control everything at our fingertips, sending spaceships to Mars, yet we haven’t been able to fully automate something as simple as sewer cleaning, just 10 feet below the ground. It’s time to change that,” said Rashid Karimbanakkal, co-founder and director of Genrobotic Innovations.
As the Maha Kumbh unfolds, these robot cleaners are diving into the dirtiest jobs, ensuring faith meets sanitation. The Bandicoot claims to be the world’s first robot designed to put an end to the centuries-old, dehumanising practice of manual scavenging.
Operators clad in protective gear — yellow helmets, long orange gloves, and fluorescent green jackets — stand by the Bandicoot, eyes glued to a screen as they control the robot’s arms with a red joystick. The robot descends into manholes, unclogging drains and navigating underground hazards, tasks that once exposed sanitation workers to life-threatening conditions.
Karimbanakkal sees his robots as the future of modern sanitation.
In the seven years since the launch of the startup, nearly 300 units of Bandicoot robots have been deployed in 19 states and three Union Territories across India.
We are taking humans out of manholes, said Karimbanakkal
From ideation to scaling up
The founders of Genrobotic Innovations—four software engineers from Kerala—turned to wildlife for a solution.
“When designing a tool for underground work, we took inspiration from the bandicoot—an Australian marsupial,” said Karimbanakkal. These small, rat-like creatures dig burrows beneath the surface, collecting sand and piling it above ground to create space for their homes below.
Within a year, the team developed a machine that mimicked these tasks and called it Bandicoot. That was back in 2018.
Bandicoot resembles a sleek, futuristic machine, rolling on a wheeled frame with a central drone unit at its core. The drone has a collapsible pipe, plunging eight metres deep into the ground, while four robotic legs stretch out to navigate the terrain. A robotic arm with integrated bucket scrapes wastes from the corners and walls, collecting them at the centre.
As the Bandicoot descends, its robotic limbs fully extend, giving the eerie impression of a human figure standing beneath the surface—almost as if viewed through X-ray vision.
Waterproof, low-light, and night-vision cameras, along with gas sensors, gather vital data for navigation and safety. The live camera feed guides the operator, and gas sensors detect toxic fumes in the manhole.
“If dangerous levels are detected, the system instantly warns the operator,” said Karimbanakkal.
Incubated under the Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) in Thiruvananthapuram, Genrobotic Innovations got wings in 2017. Initially, the founders focused on designing and 3D-printing hardware models using wooden structures at KSUM’s fabrication labs, where they tested parts before building the actual product.
Funding started rolling in as early as 2018, with seed investments from Mumbai-based venture capital firm, Unicorn India Ventures and Rajan Anandan, former Vice President of Google India, fueling the start-up’s early ambitions.
The momentum only grew stronger as the start-up progressed. Heavyweights like Mahindra Group contributed Rs 2.5 crore in pre-Series A funding, while Zoho Corp followed with a whopping Rs 20 crore in Series A funding. According to the founder, these investments marked a pivotal turning point, propelling the venture into its next big chapter.
“Our engineers are constantly tinkering with the machine to ensure that the sewer cleaning process involves zero human contact,” said Karimbanakkal.
Launched last year, the new Bandicoot Mobility Plus takes the original model to the next level by integrating it with a vehicle, responding directly to feedback from frontline workers. This upgrade automates every step of the sewage cleaning process—from digging to collecting and dumping grime.
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A wake-up call for the founders
Karimbanakkal and the co-founders—Vimal Govind MK, Arun George, and Nikhil NP—bonded over their shared passion for technology and social service while they were students at MES College of Engineering Kuttippuram, University of Calicut.
“Our connection began through the National Service Scheme (NSS) forum conducted in our college, where we discussed how to apply our technical knowledge to solve community problems,” said Karimbanakkal.
Their initial collaboration wasn’t aimed at sanitation but at enhancing military operations. They first came together for a college project. They developed an exoskeleton — a mechanical suit reminiscent of Iron Man’s technology from Marvel comics. The project showcased their ability to create advanced robotic technology
However, a manual scavenging tragedy in 2015 claiming the lives of two sanitation workers, and an auto-rickshaw driver who tried to help them—pushed the team to shift their focus from military applications to cleantech solutions.
“That tragedy shook us to the core. It became our turning point—driving us to create Bandicoot robots, so no one ever has to step into a toxic manhole again. No more lives lost,” said Karimbanakkal.
Their journey to scaling up advanced cleantech solutions has been anything but smooth.
“We faced countless roadblocks along the way—starting with the widespread lack of awareness about the manual scavenging act and compounded by the struggle to find skilled manpower fast enough to match our growing operations,” said Karimbanakkal.
Today, their workforce of nearly 300 employees has expertise in areas like neural networks, algorithm development, and other essential domains that drive robotic innovations.
But technology alone wasn’t enough to bring change. Awareness about the Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, the practice of manual scavenging, and the health risks it posed to sanitation workers was alarmingly low.
“In the company’s early days, this knowledge gap made it difficult to get the message across to government bodies — a hurdle that demanded persistence and proactive outreach to overcome,” said Karimbanakkal.
It took sustained awareness efforts and a push from government programmes like the Swachh Bharat Mission (2014) and Smart Cities Mission (2015) to nudge organisations toward safer, more dignified solutions aimed at reforming the sanitation sector.
A major turning point came with the Supreme Court’s ruling in October 2023, which increased compensation for manual scavenging deaths from Rs 10 lakh to 30 lakh. According to Karimbanakkal, it pushed municipalities and government bodies into action, and accelerated the shift toward mechanised cleaning solutions like Genrobotic Innovation’s Bandicoot robots.
Mission robohole in action
On a winter morning, a passersby at Panchkula, Haryana, stopped to stare at a narrow multi-legged machine boring into a manhole. It was scooping out sewage with its expandable bucket system.
Less than a month ago, Genrobotic Innovations sent a team of robotic engineers from Thiruvananthapuram to Panchkula to launch ‘Mission Robohole’ — an ambitious project to clean the city’s drainage system without risking human lives.
But the mission goes beyond just deploying machines. The startup is also focused on empowering sanitation workers, training them to operate the robots.
The response from government officials has been positive.
“No more deadly dives — just buttons, machines, and a whole lot more dignity,” said Ashok Kumar, a junior engineer at Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran (formerly Haryana Urban Development Authority).
Unlike Delhi NCR, which has a minimal slope in its drainage system, the urban centers of Panchkula typically rely on gravity for sewage flow, minimising the need for workers to enter manholes. However, the situation in villages or around dhabas is quite different.
Kumar explained that the narrow lanes of villages in Panchkula make it difficult for existing suction or jetting machines to enter. Until recently, sanitation workers had to dive into manholes with long shovels, scooping out debris from sewage pits full of faecal sludge, household waste, and large chunks of construction debris posing safety and health risks.
As part of a pilot project, Kumar devised a strategy to clean one village at a time using the robots developed by Genrobotic Innovations. “With robotic assistance, I am close to completing the cleaning of the entire sewage line of one village in just 10 days — a process that would otherwise take months. After that, we’ll move on to the next village,” he said.
However, despite the Bandicoot model handling access to narrow spaces in the village, manual scavengers are still responsible for carrying and disposing of waste at the final dumping site.
Meanwhile, in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar (formerly Aurangabad) of Maharashtra, Bandicoots have helped solve the problem of overflowing drains caused by the massive dumping of faecal waste.
Traditionally, the city relied on basic desilting machines to clean drainage pipes, avoiding the use of manual labour for manhole cleaning. However, these machines had their limitations.
“Without cameras or display screens, they were essentially shooting in the dark,” said Amol Kulkarni, executive engineer of the Municipal Corporation of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar.
In mid-2024, the city government turned to Genrobotic’s Bandicoot Mobility Plus — to tackle manhole cleaning. Over the past six months, two of these robots have been deployed in ten zones Kulkarni manages, clearing 12–13 sewage-filled chambers each day.
“Using the vehicular Bandicoot has been a massive cost-saver, reducing expenses by Rs 2 to 3 crores annually, which would otherwise go toward digging open main lines to jetting clogged sewer lines,” added Kulkarni.
However, Bezwada Wilson, national convenor of the Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA), emphasised that while Bandicoot is a significant innovation, it alone cannot resolve India’s sanitation challenges.
“Bandicoot is just one initiative, but it alone cannot solve the country’s sanitation issues or eradicate the widespread problem of manual scavenging,” Wilson said. “India needs direct government intervention to solve this problem.”
(Edited by by Ratan Priya)