Google Maps may soon let Indians locate clean public toilets

Google might be working with the Indian government to help fix the country’s big sanitation problem.

Finding a restroom is hard enough in modern cities, but in India, there’s another problem: finding a clean toilet. To combat this issue, Google is working with India’s Ministry of Urban Development to launch Toilet Locator, according to IBTimes.

The feature will be available within Google Maps and show public restrooms available in gas stations, malls, and hospitals among other places. Maps will begin to understand keywords such as "toilet," "lavatory," and Hindi words "swach", "shulabh", "swachhata", and "shauchalay".

It will first be made available in Delhi metropolitan area (National Capital Region), and the roll-out is said to begin later this month. An official with the ministry department quoted in the report said that the feature, much like several other Google Maps functions, will rely on crowdsourced data. People will be able to leave feedback.

Sanitary is a major issue in India with roughly 70 percent Indian households not having access to toilets. This has resulted in a large number of Indians defecating and urinating in open places.