At 14, Kerala girl invents bicycle washing machine

At 14, Remya Jose of Malappuram, Kerala was juggling Class X exams, a 4-hour school commute, and caring for her sick parents. Hand-washing clothes was eating up hours.

She couldn’t afford a washing machine, so she built one from a bicycle. Her design: an aluminium tub with a perforated iron cylinder linked to cycle pedals. Fill with water and detergent, soak 10 mins, pedal 3-4 mins to wash. Drain, refill to rinse, then pedal with water drained to spin-dry clothes 80%.

Cost: Rs 2,000. No electricity needed, and it doubles as exercise. The idea became a national innovation. It was patented in 2003 (Indian Patent No. 207634) and won NIF’s National Student Award in 2005.