Young brothers invent unique litter-picking machine, win multiple national awards

At a time when crores of rupees are being spent by the government to achieve the vision of a 'Clean India' by 2nd October 2019, two school children of Rajasthan's Sirohi district have devised a wrapper picker machine, in an effort to speed up the sanitation work across the country. The machine can also be used by municipality corporations, housing colonies, schools, offices and other public and private spaces.

Engineering student Mukul Malviya and senior secondary school student Dipatanshu Malviya were at a bus station when they noticed an elderly sweeper leaning repeatedly picking up the litter. The scene moved the sibling duo to come up with a unique solution of building a litter picking machine to help thousands of such sanitation workers across the country. 

Operated by a motor, the machine is first of its kind and simple to operate and maintain. 

The National Innovation Foundation, acknowledging the great potential in the machine, helped the duo to upgrade the model further with a better design. The sibling duo' unique innovation has won them the prestigious IGNITE award. In 2015, they were also selected for Rashtrapati Bhavan’s Innovation Scholar in Residence programme.

The duo also demonstrated their equipment at the Rashtrapati Bhavan which won them a applause from former President Dr. Abdul Kalam. "This tool will prove to be very useful for the common man as well as the nation in future," Kalam had then said.

They also won a national award from the National Innovation Foundation in 2017. 

The students claim that no such machine of this kind has come in the market so far. The device is motor-driven and automatically picks up scattered litter from the ground and collects it in a dustbin. 

The autonomous body of Dept of Science and Technology, Government of India is also providing the duo with the necessary institutional support needed to sustain, monetise, and scale up their grassroots innovation and reach potential buyers of the technology.