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Anti-Bolting Device
Gobinda Chandra Gogoi
Rajgarh, Assam

3rd National Grassroots Innovation - 2005

 Innovator Profile

 A commerce graduate, Gogoi hails from Rajgarh in Assam. He is 68 years old. His family comprises his wife, son and three daughters. He worked as Asst. Superintendent in the Directorate of Small Savings, Govt. of Assam till his retirement in 1996. He was also running a small printing press in his wife’s name till 2000.

 
The genesis
 
Gogoi developed the idea of the L-drop auto protector in the year 2000, after reading about a reported case at Guwahati, where burglars locked inmates within a room (having L-drop) from outside, while ransacking the house. To overcome this problem he thought of designing an anti-locking device to prevent unauthorized locking of the door from outside when a person is already present in the room and vice-versa. This was all the more important as there was no two-way anti-locking device available in the market. Accordingly he took two days to make the device and fixed it on his bedroom door. His family at first found the experiment annoying as his bedroom was converted into a workshop and even found it childish and funny, once it was installed. They requested him not to install it on their doors. But after the visit by officers from GIAN North East, they revised their opinion and realize that the innovation has some purpose.
 
 
Gobinda Chandra Gogoi has solved a problem that many households face either due to pranks by children or as a safety hazard. Sometimes when people are inside a house the latch is bolted from outside and the inmates have to call somebody to open it from outside. With the device developed by Gobinda such will never be the case. At present the device has been fitted in four houses and has been found to be eminently useful. NIF has filed a patent application on his behalf.
 
This low cost device prevents the door being locked from outside or from inside depending upon the user’s wish. It can be used by a person whether he is inside or outside the room and can be adaptable for all types of doors. Another point in its favour is that it is suited for the rooms/ toilets used by mentally challenged patients and persons suffering from epilepsy as unauthorized/accidental locking can be prevented.
 
A free spirit…
 
After retiring from government service in 1996, Gogoi has devoted his time to creative works. The lack of interest of his family has not dampened his enthusiasm as he confides that when he starts a journey he is always determined to reach the goal. He is also the author of a book “Phrases and Idioms” which took him five years to complete. Most of his annual pension of Rs.48, 000 goes into experiments conducted in a small tool room at his house. Some of his other innovations include several small attachments to his cot which facilitate reading while lying down and some changes to his gate-locks which are now maintenance free in nature. He hopes that the L-Drop auto protector will be manufactured and used widely not only in India but also in the rest of the world. He has applied for a patent for the innovation. At the same time he stresses the fact that he is an innovator and not a businessman and hence has left manufacturing to others. Expressing his desire to be free in all respects, he quotes a line from the poem, ‘Miller of Dee’-… “I envy nobody and nobody envies me”. He goes on to say “Like the Miller, now, I am also a happy man without anxieties”