3ie, in partnership with the ministry of housing and urban development department, Odisha, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, conducted a year-long study to understand the barriers and facilitators of urban collectives engaged in the sanitation work . This op-ed recounts how the state government of Odisha has been able to provide employment opportunities to more than 6,500 women- and transgender-collective members through the various sanitation models, and how scale-up of this project combined with evaluation evidence can prove beneficial across the country