The Environmental Sanitation Institute (ESI) is a non-governmental organization based on the Gandhian values of environmentalism that strives to provide a better quality of life to rural peoples and the urban poor of India by improving their sanitation situation. The Institute was born in 1985 out of its mother NGO, Safai Vidyalaya (“sanitation institute”), under the leadership of Padmashri Ishwarbhai Patel. The Environmental Sanitation Institute tackles the problem of sanitation with the holisitic mindset that the issue affects the environment, health, education and economy of the whole country. The mission is to provide access to basic sanitary needs to the rural and urban poor , upgradation of rural and urban health through education, motivation, and community participation , upliftment of down trodden people, especially sweepers and scavengers, and creation of environmental awareness and respect based on Gandhian values