Last year, on his trip to a village (name withheld for privacy) in Tamil Nadu, Navjot Sawhney presented Divya with a washing machine, an updated version of the prototype he’d created and named after her in 2017. It was a full-circle moment for Navjot; after all, Divya, a resident of that village, was the inspiration behind the aeronautical engineer’s idea to start The Washing Machine Project, an idea that, in retrospect, he recalls as the inflection point of his life.
Even after all these years, Navjot clearly recalls Divya’s complaints of persistent backache and skin irritation caused by the traditional practice of washing clothes by hand.
Long hours spent washing clothes can cause backache and frequent skin irritation in women.
The British-born Navjot, who was on a sabbatical at the time and travelling through India, channelled his ingenuity into building a low-cost manual washing machine, which reworks the process, requires no electricity, and uses very little water.
As he explains, “I was working at a high-end vacuum manufacturing company when I took a sabbatical. After experiencing the village lifestyle and its problems, it did not feel right to use my skills to make products benefiting the privileged. So, I quit my job and spent nearly a year coming up with a washing machine.”
Navjot Sawhney started The Washing Machine Project to help women in remote areas with the task of washing clothes.
To date, Navjot and his team have taken the machine to communities across 14 countries, including India, Iraq, Lebanon, Mexico, Kenya, Uganda, the Republic of Congo, South Africa, Ghana, and Greece, as well as refugee centres in Gaza, Palestine, and Uganda.
The unseen labour behind a daily chore
While many viewed the machine as a luxury, Navjot saw it for what it truly was — a necessity, and a rebellion against the unequal domestic burden of washing clothes.
The Washing Machine Project has conducted ethnographic research in 13 countries and interviewed more than 3,000 families in Uganda, Kenya, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Cameroon, Jamaica, Nepal, India, and the Philippines to gain insight into their clothes-washing tendencies. The findings indicated that washing clothes is a woman’s task, pretty much everywhere.
The Divya washing machine has made its way into displaced communities living in conflict zones around the world.
Navjot explains, “We often see women laughing and chatting away on the river banks while washing clothes. What we don’t see is the amount of time, endurance, energy, and stamina that goes into the activity.”
This is seconded by the study that, while highlighting the labour-intensive nature of washing clothes, says the wringing action of wet clothes, contact of skin with harsh detergents, and scrubbing using stone slabs take intense effort.
A pragmatic solution to lighten domestic loads
“For the first time in my 15-year marriage, I feel like my husband understands me and my struggles.”
When women give this feedback to Navjot, it thrills him. Conversations with the women in whose communities the washing machine has been introduced reveal how exhausting they used to find the ritual of handwashing garments; it showed little regard for age or circumstance.
The manual, off-the-grid washer helps save up to 50% of water and 75% of the time compared to handwashing.
And its effects go beyond physical fatigue. It comes in the way of their autonomy.
“Women use approximately 50-60 litres of water if they are hand washing the clothes. Moreover, they have to walk for miles to source the water and also carry the burden of filled buckets. This was causing back-breaking problems for women of Iraq’s Mamrashan Refugee Camp. Additionally, their free time is used to rest or help the kids with their studies. Women can save approximately 750 hours annually if they stop hand-washing clothes,” Navjot deduced.
Enter the Divya Washing Machine, a flat-packable washing machine that provides women with recourse. It serves as a practical tool and brings a tangible shift in power, returning time, choice, and a measure of control over their days.
Designed for women and girls in remote and displaced communities, ‘Divya’ is easy to assemble, repair, and recycle. A 30-minute cycle with minimal manual turning saves up to 75 percent of time and halves water use.
But it wasn’t an overnight invention. Divya began in 2018 as a promise — and a playful experiment with a salad spinner that proved clothes could be washed simply, without electricity. The first 2019 prototype, built from a repurposed drum, was tested with displaced families in Iraq, whose feedback shaped its future.
Research conducted by The Washing Machine Project indicates that women can save approximately 750 hours annually if they stop hand-washing clothes.
By 2021, Divya 1.5 was co-built with partners and communities. The current version is lighter, repairable, locally assembled, and designed around real-world constraints — transport, durability, and ease of fixing.
The buck stops here
Alamelu, now in her 60s, was one of seven siblings, raised in a village in Puducherry. She had numerous responsibilities around the home, one of which ate significantly into her time: washing the family’s clothes. As a child, Alamelu enjoyed the task. She grew older, life happened, homes changed, but one constant remained: the chore. As an elderly woman, Alamelu no longer had fun doing the washing; in fact, she began to see it as the cause of her many health issues.
Through The Washing Machine Project women are finding time for themselves.
When, in 2024, Navjot’s innovation made its way into Alamelu’s village and home, she was thrilled, Navjot says. She could finally rest knowing that, if she couldn’t wash clothes, the home wouldn’t come to a standstill.
Alamelu’s story underscores the unspoken plights of numerous women who are victims of this pattern.
Navjot’s travels have introduced him to many such stories of the impact of the washing machine. These are reflected in the stories of Anjali, who reclaimed hours each day to rest and run her tea shop; Sarasu and her daughter Aishwarya, who finally found time to study and breathe; Sangeetha, freed from years of hip pain; and Alamelu, whose childhood was lost to chores — but whose grandchildren can now choose school over the washing pond.
The way Navjot sees it, the machine may appear to be a simple innovation. But it’s changing lives across the world. And now you can be a part of his revolution.
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All pictures courtesy The Washing Machine Project
