Summer camps at Hasiru Dala are different. Yes, it’s a space for hundreds of children to come together to learn new skills and have fun, but at the same time it’s that time of the year when they make a promise. A promise they make to each other that they will stay in school, continue their education and will not drop out at any cost. A promise that will help them to build a better future for themselves; build a future with choices. You can help children make and keep this promise.

Children of waste pickers are one of the most marginalized populations of children under risk in the city. Many of them drop out of school very early and follow their parents to waste picking, making them prey not only to the vicious cycle of poverty, but also exposing them to life threatening health hazards. A few others last in schools till they are about fifteen and then drift away to do manual work. There are very few children whose parents persist and complete their schooling. Employment, of course, is another challenge. In some migrant communities, they prefer not to send their children to local school with a fear of not knowing the local language.

In most cases the children of waste pickers are first generation school goers and their parents struggle hard to send them to English Medium Private Schools, hoping for better quality education. Most of these mainstream schools, are academic growth oriented, and do little to encourage the overall development of the children.

Hasiru Dala, over the last three years has been providing loans and scholarships to hundreds of children, helping them stay in school, or get them admitted in boarding schools to learn and do well. The organization has organized and engaged the children in a Zero Drop Out campaign where during the yearly summer camp, the children take a pledge not only to stay in school, and make sure that their friends don’t drop out as well. To this end, the campaign has been successful, and there has been a steady decrease in the dropout rates.

We would like to solicit your support to organize this year’s summer camp for 500 children of wastepickers. We need INR 150,000 to cover all the costs of summer.

Summer Camp will include a visit to Freedom Park, storytelling sessions, theatre and craft workshop and a pledge taking ceremony, where children will commit that neither they nor their peers will drop out from school. The summer camp will complement the existing efforts of scholarships for children’s education and community library.

Do contribute, our account details are given as follows:

Account Name: Hasiru Dala

Bank: State Bank of Mysore

Account Number: 64132965349

IFSC: SBMY0040217

Please drop an email when you make a donation at this address: Kabir.postbox@gmail.com, you can also call on +919663427315

Priyanka Sacheti*

I got to learn about Hasiru Dala when I started volunteering with Buguri a couple of months after  moving to Bangalore in January this year. Having volunteered with a community library in Delhi, I was excited to hear about the birth of one in Bangalore and wished to join their journey in creating a dialogue about reading and books. After meeting Lakshmi and talking to her about Buguri and its goals, I have visited the library several times. Each time I visit, it is a delight to see how it is growing, the children peeking in before coming inside to browse through the books or settle down to hear a story. Their anticipation and excitement is strongly palpable as soon as they enter inside the comforting, nurturing space that is Buguri.

There was a similar contagious excitement filling the air on Friday, 19^th May at Freedom Park. Soon after us volunteers and a few facilitators had gathered at the entrance along with Lakshmi, Sangeetha, and several others, the brightly dressed, chattering and laughing children poured in along with their teachers. Once the registrations were complete and badges were pinned to their dresses or shirts or salwar kameez, I asked them to pose for pictures as that was one of my volunteer responsibilities and they cheerfully did so.

As we waited for more children to arrive, the ones who were already there assembled in groups with their respective facilitators and volunteer support. As they sipped milk and snacked on cookies, a few children decided to amaze us with their incredible dancing skills. Equipped with three left feet, if not five, I am always in admiration of those who dance and these kids’ dancing left me speechless.

The day was structured in two sessions with several workshops taking place in each: storytelling, crafts, theatre games, martial arts, and pottery to name a few. Once the kids settled down into their groups and facilitators, they became instantly engrossed and involved in the spirit of those sessions. I happened to help out Shylaja Sampath who was conducting a storytelling and visual arts workshop; after narrating a story, the children then proceeded to sit down and draw, filling their pages with brightly hued homes, which they would take to their own homes afterwards.

I witnessed a great deal of energy and excitement in whichever workshop I happened to see – and what better way to harness it than a session of clowning? I have to admit that I had never before encountered a clowning workshop so I was as curious as the kids to see what its facilitator, Harish Bhuvan had in store for us. He swiftly drew the kids’ attention towards an an intriguing session of performance, mime, expressions, and gestures; at one point, as part of the performing exercises, the kids even ‘slept’ for a while before sitting down to hear a story and indulge in a little more theatre.

The day finally ended with the all important oath taking ceremony where  the children committed that neither they nor their peers will drop out from school as well as sharing their thoughts about their experiences during the day. It concluded with a vote of thanks to the facilitators and volunteers; I along with several of them were kindly honored in front of a cheering crowd and given a thoughtful gift of a budding mogra plant. Even though it had been a long day, the children’s energy, pleasure in participating in these activities, and affection made it such a memorable experience. I set off home, wearing a big smile, cradling my plant, and twirling a beautiful champak flower which was presented to me by one of the children that I was working with in the sessions. It was a lovely memory to round up the day!

Thank you, Lakshmi, Sangeetha, and all the other facilitators and volunteers who participated on Friday, it was wonderful to work alongside you – look forward to doing so next year along with seeing  all the children at the camp once again!

Priyanka is volunteer who was a part of summer camp and regularly volunteers at the Buguri community library.

On the evening of 27^th June 2017, a Dry Waste Collection Centre* (located in Ward number 161, near Gowdanapallya Kere) operated by erstwhile wastepicker Kumar Shankar caught fire. At the point, the centre was hosting approximately 1.5 to 2 tonnes of sorted waste material that was worth INR 30,000 and ready to be sold to the recycling industry.

The centre provides direct employment to 4 wastepickers and supports many other waste-workers by way of purchase of waste material from them. This system has now burned down and been reduced to ashes.  The overall infrastructure loss is estimated to be worth INR 40,000.

Kumar Shankar is in immediate need of financial support for the restoration of the centre and for compensation of his losses.

Dry Waste Collection Centres (DWCCs) provide valuable employment and entrepreneurship opportunities to wastepickers and waste-workers in Bengaluru, and citizen involvement in their processes is essential.

Hasiru Dala seeks your support in bringing this DWCC back to life and in ensuring that the waste-workers involved in its functioning continue to find safe and dignified work through it.

Following are the bank details towards which you can direct your donation:

Account Name: Hasiru Dala

Bank: State Bank of Mysore

Account Number: 64132965349

IFSC Code: SBMY0040217

(The per-person donation amount range is set between INR 100 and INR 500. Once you have donated, please send an email to kabir.postbox@gmail.com. You can also call us at +91-9663427315)

*Dry Waste Collection Centres (DWCCs) are decentralised centres set for aggregation and sorting of recyclables and low/no value waste by Bruhat Bengaluru Mahangara Pallike (Greater Bangalore Municipal Corporation – BBMP). A substantial number of centres are operated by erstwhile wastepickers and informal waste collectors. The DWCC is a means of integrating the informal waste workers (wastepickers and waste-collectors) to have better livelihood opportunities.

Kabir Arora

Goa is a major tourist destination in India. Every year millions of tourists come down to the state. They eat, drink and party. All this generates waste. A substantial amount of waste. How does Goa manage its waste? In January, I went to Goa with this question.

I met Clinton Vaz, who is the founder of Vrecycle. A long-time resident of South Goa. He worked in Panjim Municipal Council, later worked as a consultant for residents to set up waste management facilities within their compound. Over the years, he realised consultation -advice won’t work. He must get his hands dirty. With that began Vrecycle’s waste management services. Vrecycle provides waste collection services to more than 10,000 and other units scattered across many village Panchayats and Municipal Councils in Goa. They support residents to manage organic waste on-site and collect dry waste segregated in as many as four or more categories- glass, paper, PET bottles and metals. Sanitary waste is collected separately.

Organic waste is management on-site. For bulk generators, an additional service of supervising composting services is provided. Whenever required a supervisor visits the site to see whether the process of composting is in order. Once week, they pick up the dry waste. For this village Panchayats and other bulk generators, pay the user fees. For larger units or bulk generators, separate bins for dry waste are kept within the compound. The glass goes in glass bin, paper in bins for paper and plastic in bins for plastic. Once these bins are full, the residents give a call and a truck is sent for the collection of segregated dry waste. The segregation of dry waste within compounds save cost on the first level of sorting of dry waste. After collection, the segregated dry waste is brought to the aggregation and sorting unit, if it needs to be sorted further, the sorters (erstwhile waste-pickers) undertake that process. Otherwise, it is packed and aggregated before being sent to recycling units. Glass goes back to soft-drink and alcohol manufacturers via partners of Vrecycle, Plastic and paper is sent to recycling companies. Multi-layered plastic, for now, is sent to cement kilns, though not the best option, but with current options available it is what one has.

Story of Old Monk glass bottles

Glass along with other dry waste (recyclables, low and no value waste) is collected by Vrecycle from households and other units. Glass items majorly include alcohol and soft drink bottles both broken and unbroken. Broken and unbroken glass is sold to a neighbourhood unit (few metres away from Vrecycle- in Madgaon Industrial Area). From that unit, the broken glass is sent to Gujarat, where it is used for manufacturing of the glass again. Unbroken glass bottles are washed and sold to alcohol companies to use again.

Old monk alcohol factory is next to this unit, it directly goes from the unit to the factory, where the glass is washed again, and alcohol is filled. Thus, forming circular economy in glass. Next time, when you drink and dispose of bottles responsibly, you know where it goes.

Sanitary waste still a concern

Sanitary waste including diapers and used sanitary pads have not found any major solution. It is being stocked. Clinton claims that he has the largest collection of used diapers, stored in a godown. One doesn’t know what to do with it. Technically, diapers and sanitary pads are a sanitary waste. They are to be collected separately. After collection sanitary waste should be dealt as bio-medical waste. The facilities are far and few and expensive. It makes it nearly impossible for private waste management service providers to process on their own. He has been wondering that he is not a very big player in waste management services. Still, he is holding the largest stock of used diapers. His question is what do the other service providers in Goa do, especially the contractors providing services in jurisdiction of municipal areas. As mentioned above the facilities are far and few and expensive. One can assume it is being dumped somewhere. In case of Vrecycle, sanitary and some amount of ceramic waste is being stocked in the warehouse, till a responsible disposal system is figured out.

Employment for waste-pickers

Vrecycle is a small firm with twenty employees. Most of them were waste-pickers, few of them worked in dumping sites. All the employees get a monthly salary above the minimum wage in Goa, starting at INR 8000 and going up to INR 20,000. It’s companies like Vrecycle which are making Goa, probably, the only state where Gram Panchayats are actively managing the waste. In most other states, waste-management is considered as an ‘urban’ issue. There are some initiatives which have started in Karnataka. They are yet to reach the scale of Goa.

Guest-post by Iainehskhem Self-Help Group, Shillong

In a long while, we sometimes come across change-makers in society from simple unassuming persons. This is a story of a few hitherto unknown persons who collected bits and pieces of discarded waste items from Marten Dumping yard to fend for themselves and their families. They collected all items that may have some economic value and stored them and sold to scrap dealers for a price. The daily routine of rummaging the city’s waste to pick up different items of little value goes on throughout the year. They must often work with their bare hands with little or nothing to protect them from imminent health hazards. These women have come up the hard way who worked tirelessly for hours to sustain themselves and their families. They are still grateful for the meagre income they get from the recyclables they manage to pick and sold them for a mite.

Under the North Eastern Regional Capital City Development Investment Programme (NERCCDIP), State Investment Planning Management and Implementation Unit (SIPMIU), urban affairs department and SMB have developed a plan to rehabilitate the women and facilitated the formation of the Iainehskhem Self-Help Group (SHG), in November 2014 with the objective to enhance the livelihood of women waste pickers. The group has become a replicable model for villages and town colonies where decentralised waste management can be implemented.

After getting trained the women group has shown that they can make full use of their learnt skills. The members of the SHG became cohesive after much hand-holding and training organised by the Community Team of the NERCCDIP. The group has framed their own rules and regulations and it has become cohesive with a strong Team Spirit. They truly uphold the dignity of labour and happily go about their work of composting, so much so they have come to be known as “Merry Maidens of Marten” for their sense of happiness, unity, and cooperation.

Slowly their interest in making use of the waste item emerged through a few training sessions that were organised for the members. They have started monthly saving from the meagre income they get from waste picking. They have launched a project to compost the biodegradable waste with a simple indigenous technique of composting. Through the constant encouragement from SIPMIU staff and the simple technology shared with them by Bethany Society (NGO), these women have become champions of green economy and green-jobs. The SHG has already produced about 7000kgs of compost manure that was tested by the Department of Agriculture Laboratory and certified that the manure is good for plants. Another test from the ICAR laboratory has re-confirmed that the organic manure is suitable for plants. The compost products are produced from an indigenous Trench Composting technology, perfected by the SHG, is a FIRST in the North Eastern Region.

Trench Composting

The first step in trench composting, once the waste is delivered to the unit, is secondary segregation. Although the waste is segregated at source, there are traces of non-biodegradable waste. The members remove non-biodegradable waste through careful secondary segregation. Once completed, and the waste is spread evenly, topsoil is added along with Garbage-to-gold (G2G) granules and LAB. The waste is then turned to mix all the ingredients. The division of labour is organised that a few members are engaged in part one, a few are getting the trench ready by adding the topsoil and G2G granules at the bottom of the pit and a few in transporting the waste to the prepared trench/pit. After every six inches of waste, top soil and G2G granules are added again before the next layer. This process is repeated until the trench pit is full.

Harvesting, packaging and marketing

After forty-five days, the compost is taken out from the trench and piled to the one-foot big heap for further fermentation (Bokashi Composting). This is left for two weeks, every alternate day the compost is mixed for aeration. Aeration is necessary to cool down the compost because if there is too much heat, the microorganisms will die, and fermentation process will slow down.  Come the second week and compost is spread evenly on the floor for drying. After a day, the compost is sieved, put into packets, sealed and ready for sale.

Having worked wholeheartedly for over eight months and produced 10,000kgs of compost (300 odd bags of 30kgs each), the compost was not being marketed. On the 22^nd June 2017, with the support of Bethany Society, two SHG office bearers and the CPPA team visited the Raj Bhavan (Governor’s Residence) with the intention to sell the ready compost. Having met with the Deputy Secretary who introduced the team to the Principal Secretary, the story from waste-pickers to Merry Maidens was shared and the Principal Secretary was very impressed with the work carried out by the SHG members. He immediately placed an order of 7000kgs of compost at the rate of Rs 15/kg amounting to Rs 1,05,000/-. This icebreaker was long awaited, and the members were ecstatic. From then on, the Group has been supplying compost to Raj Bhavan Gardens. Again, there was a demand for another 4000Kgs of compost which was packed and delivered after receiving a supply order. The Principal Secretary has assured that Iainehskhem Self Help Group will be the sole supplier of compost to Raj Bhavan. The Agriculture Officer-in-charge of the Raj Bhavan Gardens has given an impact report that the compost supplied by Iainehskhem SHG is of superior quality.

People are beginning to recognise the work of the members of SHG and have nothing but praises and goodwill for each member. The word is spreading, and people are getting in touch with the group for compost. The group is now trying to knock at the doors of the Agriculture and Horticulture Department.

Institutional structure and replicability of the model

Every day is a new learning experience for each of the members. Three office-bearers- President, Secretary and Treasurer, also Vice President, Assistant Secretary and Assistant Treasurer, head the group to ensure sustainability of the group. The members who have faith and trust in their working have elected these leaders. The group take ownership by framing their own constitution/rules, which all members are expected to follow. The constitution mandates the members to enforce, monitor, penalise and charge fines to non-complying members. All members contribute a monthly subscription to have ownership of the group. Composting of biodegradable waste is a daily norm for alternative livelihood for weaker families. This process can be replicated to manage waste going to the landfills.

This system of utilising waste can be done in the neighbourhood and at institution levels in small scale. The Iainehskhem SHG has shown the way and they truly deserve to be appreciated by environmentally conscious people and organizations. The SHG not only makes compost and markets it but are now confident trainers and confidence builders.

Memorandum submitted to Mr. U.T. Khader, Minister of Urban Development & Housing, Karnataka; Mr. R. Sampath Raj, Mayor of Bengaluru; Ms. Sowmya Reddy, Member of Legislative Assembly, Karnataka, representing Jayanagara; Mr. Manjunath Prasad, Commissioner of Bengaluru. The memorandum was submitted on the occasion of Hasiru Habba, an annual gathering of waste-pickers in Karnataka, where more than a thousand waste-pickers participated. The gathering is organised to celebrate the work done by waste-pickers and informal waste collectors to keep our cities clean and healthy.

Memorandum

Wastepickers and informal waste collectors of Bengaluru, with the support of government officials and citizens have transformed the landscape of waste management in the city. The city has scientific decentralized inclusive waste management systems in place. Waste-pickers and informal waste collectors are back-bone of that system. They help the Bengaluru municipal body save more than INR 84 crore annually by diverting 1050 tons of waste to recycling. Further, due to their inclusion in dry waste collection and aggregation. They have sent more than 7144 tons of dry waste for recycling and co-processing. In the past two years, waste-pickers have been recognized as important stakeholders in the Solid Waste Management Rules 2016 and Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan. Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Pallike (BBMP), Mysore, Tumkur, Chamrajnagar, Nelamangala and Nanjangud Municipal Corporations have issued occupational identity cards to waste-pickers and included them in the solid waste management system. The various departments in the union and municipal governments are helping this movement through the skill up-gradation to ensure livelihood security.

That said, waste-pickers are a vulnerable social group. They have meagre incomes, no social or livelihood security, and terrible housing arrangement. This is the worst for migrant waste-pickers, who have come to Bangalore after leaving rural distress and disasters like floods and droughts behind. The migrant waste-pickers are looked at with suspicion and harassed by various authorities. They are excluded from all social welfare measures. This is gross violation of fundamental rights. The constitution of India guarantees ‘Right to migrate’ as a fundamental right in Article 19 (d, e, g).

We, the members of Hasiru Dala and CCRA (Clean City Recyclers association) representing 10000 wastepickers, itinerant waste buyers, small scrap dealers of Karnataka, who have gathered to celebrate Hasiru Habba on 27.06.2018 ask the following:

• The state should come up with a comprehensive material recovery and recycling policy, it should address needs of dynamic informal waste recycling supply chains and wastepickers.
• Continuation of enumeration of waste-pickers and issuance of occupational identity cards to waste-pickers in all cities of Karnataka. The process needs to be re-initiated in Bengaluru, as BBMP has stopped issuing the occupational identity cards.
• Inclusion of waste-pickers representatives in all committees from Municipal, Gram Panchayat level to State level formed to formulate plans for solid waste management and monitoring their progress. This is prescribed in Solid Waste Management Rules 2016.
• Safety and security of the family is sustainable only with appropriate housing. We demand:
  • Karnataka Government has dedicated 500 houses for wastepickers and we would like the eligibility criteria should be relaxed. The wastepickers who have lived in city for decades and have received occupational ID cards recently are considered for the housing.
  • Some of the wastepickers who have public housing needs their homes to be repaired and upgraded to avoid flooding in their homes in the next rains. We would like the government to float a scheme for loans with lower interest rate.
  • Hasiru Dala is experimenting with upgrading and building homes by using construction debris. We would like the government to approve and give loans for such up gradation.
• Enumeration of migrant waste-pickers and issuance of occupational identity cards to them.
• Extending access to food through public distribution system as has been promised in the Congress party manifesto.
• Allocating budget for training and skill upgradation of waste-pickers and informal waste collectors as has been mandated by Solid Waste Management Rules 2016.
• Children of waste pickers are one of the most marginalized children in the urban landscape. Their future is severely affected by not having safe and stable housing and access to basic resources like water and electricity. Our children’s program- Buguri Community Library works with children of waste collectors through a library program in their community and understands the day to day struggles of children. With parents both at work, it becomes their responsibility to fend for these basic needs. This severely hampers their education and their access to a hygienic environment. We would like that every housing facility constructed by the government provides the basic services of water and electricity.

We look forward to your continued support in our struggle and we hope that you would champion our cause at the municipal and state level to bring the changes that we aspire for.

Gender Sensitization Workshop in Buguri Community Library

Aruna Manjunath*

Buguri (‘Spinning top’ in Kannada) is a community library for the children of the waste-pickers currently in 4 locations in Karnataka- Banashankari and Hebbal in Bangalore, Mysore and Tumkur. Buguri is a Hasiru Dala initiative, a waste-pickers organisation based out of Bangalore. Buguri runs with a primary aim to work with the children in the age group of 6 to 16 years, of the waster pickers’ community with the help of books. The idea is to introduce a no-fee and a fun library space to open them up to the magic of books and explore the empowerment it gives to young and fresh minds.

The Buguri library at Mysore was set up in October 2017 in a waste pickers’ colony, whose traditional occupation was to collect fallen, in B.M.C.Nagara, Mettagali. Chaitra and Mangala who run the library space had over the months observed some gender biases within the children and were on the lookout for addressing it through conversations. They had noticed that the children had begun to point at illustrations in the books, which they thought of as inappropriate, and would pass them around with everyone giggling. Soon the boys had begun to address each other as girls, giving them female names as if it were an offence. The older boys had also begun to dominate the group and present themselves in a position of power with the girls being very shy to speak out. This on one hand, the girls also had to deal with the hush-hush around menstrual health and hygiene. They felt that the children learn from such behaviour and not accept them as normal.

With all these in the background, Buguri decided to invite Jasmine of Hidden Pockets Collective for a Gender Sensitisation workshop at the library in Mysore.  Hidden Pockets Collective conducts research on sexual and reproductive health in cities of Global South. It has been working on curating services related to sexual and reproductive health in 7 cities of India. It primarily focuses on health services used by young people, people from LGBTIQ groups and any other groups who would be looking for some correct information. It also conducts a series of workshops with different groups – schools and colleges on gender sensitisation and making theses space diverse and inclusive.

After an initial talk between Buguri library, Mysore and Hidden Pockets Collective and a bit of a logistical back and forth, Sunday, June 17^th was picked.

Our day began as early as 5:30 am on a Sunday when Charu picked us- Jasmine, Kiran and Aruna up. Jasmine had earlier insisted that we bring Kiran along since the presence of a man changes the way young boys listen and respond to a session, especially facilitated by women. I have learnt this to be true myself.

We landed up in Mysore where Chaitra and Mangala guided us into the community where Buguri is situated. The amount of space there for children amazed an urban space person like me which allowed me to look more into how spaces and behaviors, especially of children are so intertwined. Buguri Mysore is a tiny space and decorated very beautifully with art works made by the children. The atmosphere felt extremely warm and inviting.

There were about 15 children in the age group of 9-16 years and their curious younger siblings peeping from the window, who were ready for the workshop to begin. They were clearly prepared earlier for the session, seeming very eager and some, having skipped their breakfast. The 4 of us had squeezed ourselves between the children along with Chaitra and Mangala. Jasmine had already begun asking their names and it amazed me how in 10 minutes she had managed to remember most of them! She was also asking them who their favourite actors and actresses were, later corrected by the children to ‘heroin’. At this point is when I realised that the session had already begun. Seemingly effortless and quietly warming up the children. The idea seemed to get the children to speak. The following questions were about make-up, what makes an actor ‘average’, beauty parlors, bullying and love. The role of gender and the opinions of the boys and girls were addressed subtly and with very minimal judgement. Jasmine was also careful not to ‘correct’ what politically may seem as ‘wrong’ answers.

The girls seemed to share very similar ideologies on these topics bordering feminism. Their responses and standpoints being very mature for their age.  While the boys, had very mixed responses from- girls as bullies cannot be given a second chance, boys can be; boys should say no to dowry; boys don’t wear make-up because they aren’t girls. And interestingly, there were moments of exchange between the boys who answered differently trying to get one to see the other’s point of view. It was an interactive session. These discussions were combined with the playing of 2 podcasts made by Hidden Pockets followed by a discussion of the same. One podcast was on bullying in a school discussed between two friends that was later escalated to the faculty who handled it in the school assembly without outing the bully. The discussion followed with the children stating how important it is to address an issue in a more general sense in a school space rather than picking out the child at fault resulting in their embarrassment. The second podcast was on growing up through an introduction to menstruation explained by a mother to her daughter with the growth of a tree as a metaphor. It also addressed changes in the body of teenagers and reassuring that changes are normal. The children reacted by discussing how some of them and their older siblings now have pimples.

This on one hand, with the verbally strong, there were some children who were very shy. Jasmine opened out to them an option of writing down their thoughts and queries without a need to mention their names. This was more than welcome in the group.

This time they took to write also meant that some would sneak out for a quick snack!

Soon after, Chaitra began to read the questions and I was wondering what this session had spiraled out into. The answers would mean another session! The children were eager to know more on a range of subjects- child marriage, menstruation, friendships and medical help. Jasmine patiently responded to them all also keeping in mind to be sensitive while addressing the group as some content may not be suitable for the 9-10-year old in the group, to be spoken explicitly.

We ended the workshop very warmly with Chaitra and Mangala handing us crepe paper flowers made by the children with their name tags on. As like one child said “Preeti manassinda barbeku” (“Love should come from the heart”), we left with hungry tummies and love in our hearts.

*Aruna Manjunath, Staff member at the Buguri Children’s Program recalls the unique experience of attending a gender sensitization program at Buguri Library Mysore, co-organized by Hidden Pockets.

Kabir Arora

‘Last year a public toilet was set up. It did not have any water connection. The tanker was supplying water. Now they have created a park around the toilet. The toilet lacks water connection and because of that they shut it down. When it was open, it was never clean,’ said Ramaaji*, a waste-picker who lives in a basti (informal settlement) near Bairagarh Railway Station. She along with other waste-pickers in the given neighborhood belong to Bhil (Adivasi- indigenous) community. They have their roots in Dahod district of Gujarat. In their home village, there was no work. It rains very little and only one crop is grown. ‘I came here around 50 years ago. I spent all my life in this area. I had my daughters and grand-daughters here. We had no work there. My parents left that place and came here in search of work. At that time, the trains used to run on coal. A lot of times, the trains spilled coal. We used to pick it and sell it and earn money to live by’, said Sunita, who is a long-time resident of the basti. Once the coal-based trains stopped operating, the people in the basti went looking for work. They got as casual labor and later some scraps shops opened in the vicinity. The basti dwellers moved from coal picking to casual work to waste-picking. In the group of 3-4, at around 3 in the morning, they leave for waste-picking. They come back by 10 or 11 in the day and then rest. Once a week, they sort the material to sell it to the neighborhood scrap shop run by a Sindhi. The scrap shop owner buys all the sorted material. Sometimes he gives a credit. The credit may amount to INR 10,000. They are told that they pay 6 percent rate of interest. But their installment is around INR 600 per month and lasts for almost 2 years and amounting to INR 14,400. INR 4,400 is paid as an interest rate.

They live in tin-sheds on the land owned by Indian Railways. Long ago, the government put up a hand-pump. It is an old hand-pump. Sometimes, it falls apart and then the basti dwellers are forced to get water from far away places. They complained to the local elected representative to get it repaired. The help comes but it takes weeks and months to get it working again. There is no proper drain. The toilet is shut for them. Apparently, the toilet was started last year. It shut down after the Swachh Bharat Surveyakshan (Clean India Survey). Now they are forced to defecate in open. During rains, the homes get flooded. The Indian Railways has shown its intention to up-grade Bairagarh Railway Station and make it ‘Smart Railway Station’, this means they will be expanding the station. The waste-pickers settlement has been informed about future displacement. According to Ramaaji ‘They are looking for land for our rehabilitation, but they have not found any. We don’t know what will happen to us.’

There are around 100 families in the basti. Most of them are from Dahod. There are around 70 children. Some of them go to government schools, some to the private and some have dropped out and gone for waste-picking. Those who go to school, few of them end up in going for waste-picking after they are done with school. The basti dwellers agree that the children should not be engaged in work, yet children provide supplementary income to the family. There is a dumping ground near the neighborhood. A lot of children were seen picking up valuable recyclables from the waste.

From past few years, Samman, a Bhopal based organization is making efforts to organize waste-pickers and support children in their education. They have set up a tuition center within the tin sheds of the basti, where children come to learn, even those who have dropped out. There are around 30-35 children who come to the tuition center. They have started a ‘savings group’ (self-help group) to save money, which they can use whenever they need to.

Ramaaji and few other women have been hired by a contractor to do door to door collection of waste from houses in Military Station nearby. They get INR 3000 as cash per month. It takes the whole day to do the collection. They put organic (wet) waste in a small truck, which is taken far away for processing or dumping (no one knows). The women workers retain the dry waste and bring it home. They get an entry pass to enter the military area. The pass is renewed every month. A lot of men and women (as mentioned earlier) go out for waste-picking in different neighborhoods. They sort the material in open space and aggregate it in their dwelling. Some of the residents complained that the city authorities trouble them a lot. They confiscate the material.

In another neighborhood, Jawahar Chowk waste-pickers complained of arbitrary arrests by police. ‘Police officer asked me to bring everything out of my bag. I showed him everything. Then he let me pack it and said you can do waste-picking, but you should never steal, and he let me go’ said Sumitra*, who is a resident of Jawahar Chowk basti. Sumitra was lucky, not all of them are lucky. ‘They pick us up as if we are thieves. Someone must have stolen valuables. The police could not find the culprit. They put us behind the bars to hide their failure’, said Ramnath*. Ramnath and Sumitra like Ramaaji live in a tin shed basti. Their Jawahar Chowk basti is a temporary colony. Some of the basti dwellers came from Maharashtra, others from within Madhya Pradesh. There are few Gond Adivasis (indigenous community), some are from the weaver caste. They did not get any work in their place of origin and chose to move to Bhopal. When they came to Bhopal, they engaged in stone crushing. When the mines shut down, they moved to waste-picking.

The residents of the temporary colony were brought there from another neighborhood, Meera Nagar, where they were living for more than 30 years. ‘Indira Gandhi allotted us that land to live’ said Tulsibai. Now they have built a multiple apartment complex in the original site, basti dwellers call it ‘multi’ in their lingo. The waste-pickers/residents were asked to give 15000-18000 as down payment and a monthly installment ranging from 1500-1700. Many families could not afford the amount. Once their homes were demolished for construction of ‘multi’ they chose to stay on the road nearby. Then they were moved to the temporary settlement in Jawahar Chowk. The temporary settlement is on a slope. The homes which are at lower gradient get flooded. The corporation has provided toilets but there is no water connection inside the toilet. A tank has been put up in the basti and few taps for water supply. The water is yellowish in color and is undrinkable.

Bhopal ranked as the 2nd cleanest city in Swachh Bharat Surveykshan (Clean India Survey) 2018. It has not made sincere efforts of integration of waste-pickers in solid waste management. The waste-pickers are the backbone of solid waste management as acknowledged in both Solid Waste Management Rules 2016 and Swachh Bharat Survey guidelines. They have not received their due whether in the form of quality housing, clean water or access to sanitation facilities.

Letter by the Alliance of Indian Waste-pickers representatives to municipal authorities of Indore city to include waste-pickers in solid waste management of Indore city.

2nd August 2018

To

Mr. Ashish Singh, IAS

The Commissioner

Indore Municipal Corporation

Indore, Madhya Pradesh

Copied to: Union Minister of State for  Housing and Urban Affairs, Secretary, Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India, Urban Development and Housing Department of Government of Madhya Pradesh and National Mission Director, Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan.

Subject- Integration of wastepickers in Solid Waste Management of Indore city. 

Respected Sir,

Indore has been twice declared the cleanest city in the Swachh Bharat Sarvekshan and we congratulate you on this. The Indore Municipal Corporation have deployed considerable human and material resources for this purpose.

Waste-pickers from different parts of the country had assembled in Indore on 23-24th 2018 for a workshop on ‘Understanding Social Protection for Waste-pickers’. Security of livelihood is part and parcel of social protection.

The Indore Municipal Corporation had issued identity cards to 2000 waste pickers in the city two years ago. Their relevance in the recycling chain has been acknowledged even in the Solid Waste Management Rules of 2016. Their presence at the Material Recovery Facilities of the Indore Municipal Corporation for sorting of recycling materials is a testimony to that fact. However, this end of the pipeline integration of waste pickers in Indore has meant the loss of livelihoods and unsafe and unfair working conditions for most of the waste-pickers. Waste-pickers are asked to wade through the mixed waste to recover recyclables, a lot of time waste-pickers end up in getting hurt by broken glass or sharp materials which are there in the mixed waste. They are forced to sell recovered materials to the Material Recovery Centre (MRC) operator, who does not provide the market price for scrap material, short-changing the waste-pickers labour and essentially engaging waste-pickers on piece rate without provisions of minimum wages, social security and welfare protection (including Provident Fund, Employee Social Insurance, Leaves and Bonus). Further worsening their existing financial and social position.

Unfortunately, waste pickers have been excluded from the very activities of the door to door collection of segregated waste that would have helped them to transform their lives. Waste pickers can access recyclable materials at the landfill site and that too only after compaction. Their right to sell the materials in the open market has been curtailed and they are forced to sell their materials only to the facility operator. This has disrupted the recycling chain and caused unemployment downstream. We would like to believe that these exclusions are not intentional.

All those assembled at this workshop endorse the demands of waste-pickers of Indore as follows:

1. All waste pickers in Indore are registered as provided for under the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 and provided with identity cards. The existing organizations working waste-pickers should be involved in identification and enumeration process. The registration process details are provided as annexure.
2. Waste pickers are given the opportunity to join the Indore Municipal Corporation for the door to door collection.
3. Material Recovery Work sheds be established at all the transfer stations where waste pickers should be permitted to access recyclable materials prior to compaction in the capsules.
4. Only materials that have no market and are rejected by waste pickers should be compacted in the capsules.
5. The wastepickers who are interested in alternative vocations should be given training for skill up-gradation, as prescribed in Solid Waste Management Rules 2016. The skill up-gradation can cover areas like the door to door collection of waste, event waste management, recycling plastic material. The waste pickers who are interested in carrying out composting work be trained and hired as workers in the composting plants and for in situ composting. All these opportunities constitute as green jobs and contribute to sustainable development of Indore city.
6. Wastepickers should be provided space for the aggregation of materials recovered from the waste. The wastepickers should be given occupational safety gear including gloves, shoes, aprons and uniforms (wherever required) on timely basis.
7. The occupational identity card of waste pickers is considered valid for benefits under all government schemes even if they don’t have a BPL card.
8. The penalization of wastepickers by municipal/state authorities should stop. The wastepickers above the age of 60 should not be stopped from working. They are a productive workforce, who are earning their livelihood.

We look forward to your intervention in ensuring justice to the 3000 waste pickers of Indore city.

Yours Sincerely

Members of the Alliance of Indian Waste-pickers

1. All India Kabadi Mazdoor Mahasangh, Delhi
2. Asangathit Mahila Sangathan, Indore
3. Dalit Bahujan Resource Centre, Guntur
4. Hasiru Dala, Bengaluru
5. Iainehskhem Self Help Group, Shillong
6. Janvikas Society, Indore
7. Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat, Pune
8. Kagad Kach Patra Kastkari Sanghathana, Aurangabad
9. Rajasthan Kachra Majdoor Sangh, Jaipur
10. Sahjeevan Trust, Bhuj
11. Sarvodya Shramik Mahila Sahkari Sakh Sanstha, Indore
12. Social Action for Literacy and Health (SALAH), Kalyan
13. Society for Direct Initiative for Social and Health Action (DISHA), Kolkata
14. Solid Waste Management Institute of Maharashtra, Aurangabad
15. Stree Mukti Sanghatana, Mumbai
16. SwaCH, Pune.

The draft by-laws put out by Directorate of Municipal Administration Karnataka has omitted discussion on waste-pickers.

Kabir Arora

“We are the people in the city who have been doing this (waste management) for a long time. Don’t do the tender. Give the job to us. We have our own self-help group, if you give us the contract, we can take (waste management: door to door collection of segregated waste and processing) it up,” said Geeta, waste-picker from Mysore, in the state level consultation of waste-pickers on ‘Draft Solid Waste Management By-laws of Karnataka’. The consultation was organized by the Alliance of Indian Waste-pickers in collaboration with Hasiru Dala. The waste-pickers and informal waste collectors came from Bengaluru, Mysore, Tumkur, Nelamangala, Chamarajanagara. The proposed by-laws make a very minute reference to the inclusion of waste-pickers and their organizations, which seems to be mere lip service. The waste-pickers were visibly upset with the omission of waste-pickers and informal waste collectors in the proposed by-laws. If the by-laws go without discussion on the integration of waste-pickers, Karnataka will become the first and probably the only state to do so. The by laws of small towns like Tenkasi to Union Territory of Daman & Diu and Odisha’s model waste management by-laws and West Bengal Solid Waste Management Policy, all prescribe integration of waste-pickers. They quote the prescription of Solid Waste Management (SWM) Rules 2016 as a reference. The SWM Rules 2016, notified by Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) outline the definition of waste-pickers, their integration, including the creation of self-help groups of waste-pickers and their participation in the solid waste management of urban and rural areas. The SWM Rules 2016 mandate the state governments and the local bodies to take initiatives in this regard. Under the rules, the state governments and local bodies are supposed to prepare action plans, strategies, and by-laws for solid waste management. To bring in uniformity across Karnataka, the Directorate of Municipal Administration has decided to draft by-laws at the state level. After the notification at the state level as model by-laws, these will be notified by the local bodies and implemented.

It is important to mention that, the measures prescribed in the SWM Rules 2016 use the lessons learned in cities like Bengaluru and Mysore. The omission of discussion on the integration of waste-pickers from by-laws appears very strange and out of place, especially when Karnataka’s cities Bangalore, Mysore, Nelamangala, and Tumkur have taken many initiatives in this regard.

The participating waste-pickers in the consultation said that they want the inclusionary measures as prescribed in SWM Rules 2016 be referred in the by-laws and detailed discussion on each of the possible measures of integration. During the consultation, they came together and put together a list of demands in the form of a letter addressed to the Directorate.

The copy of the original letter written in Kannada and signed by the waste-pickers can be can be accessed here.

The translation of the letter is provided below for reference:

The Directorate of Municipal Administration (DMA)                             Date: 07-08-2018

9^th & 10^th Floor, Vishveshwariah Tower

Dr B R Ambedker Vidhi

Bangalore 560 001.

Sub: Regarding- Notification No.UDD90CS2018, Bangalore Date 17-10-2017 Draft Karnataka Municipal Corporation Model Solid Waste Management By-laws 2018.

Notification No. UDD90CSS2018 Bangalore Date 10-07-2018 Draft Karnataka Municipalities Model Solid Waste Management By-laws 2018.

Dear Sir,

We wish to inform you that about the above notification, we the wastepickers participated in a meeting on 07-08-2018 conducted at Jain College, Palace Road, Bangalore.  The wastepickers from different districts of Karnataka met here to discuss in detail on the Karnataka draft on Bye-laws.

We understood in the present draft of By-laws that there is no mention of the contribution of our hard work. The Solid Waste Management (SWM) Rules of 2016 are violated under the above By-laws, which recommends our inclusion in SWM.

After the discussion we have decided that we need the below points to be incorporated in the by-laws:

• Issuance of occupational identity cards to wastepickers
• Involvement of wastepickers in the decentralized processes of SWM, for example- Dry Waste collection, zero waste and composting etc.,
• Wherever there has been no earlier appointment of Pourakarmikas (sanitation workers), the waste-pickers be hired for sanitation work as the priority group.
• Involvement of wastepickers in the primary dry waste collection
• Promotion of self-employment amongst wastepickers and small scrap dealers
• Provide occupational safety gear like gloves, raincoat, mask etc.,

If you have any clarification, feel free to connect with us

Anil Kumar R

Hasiru Dala, C/o Nirmithi Kendra

No.98, 2^nd Stage, Bogadi

Mysore – 26

List of signatories to the letter:

The translation of the letter was provided by Devaki H. Samuel.

The residents of a fancy apartment complex in Bellandur (Bangalore), complained to Bengaluru Municipal authorities about the informal residence of working-class (domestic workers, house-keeping staff, security guards and waste-pickers) opposite to their fancy apartments. The accommodation of the poor was an eyesore to look at from their balconies. The poor in their eyes are always criminal and illegal.

The first argument they used was that the residents are staying in the buffer zone of a lake. When as a matter of fact, they are on privately owned land. 1.3 kilometers away from the lake. According to the National Green Tribunal, the buffer zone to be kept is 75-100 meters. The workers are neither staying on the lake land as many ‘legal’ apartment owners would like to believe nor they are illegal. The land is privately owned. The workers have an informal verbal contract with the landowner. For residing on the land, they pay rent. The court of law in India recognizes such verbal contracts. The Draft National Urban Housing Policy 2015 refers to such arrangement as an informal agreement.

The second argument used against the poor residents was that they defecate in the open. Such complaints were made in the past and the settlement dwellers took a note of it. They constructed toilet facilities within their settlement.

For many middle-class residents, it is difficult to understand these nuances. The Bangalore municipal authorities took action on the complaints of these affluent residents to destroy the homes of poor. They started demolition drive and in few hours homes of poor and marginalized were shattered. Four hundred families have been displaced. Further, these families were providing vital services and contributing to the Gross Domestic Product of Bangalore city.  Some of the female residents of the settlement work in the given apartment complex as domestic workers. There are many who work as security guards and housekeeping staff in many Information Technology (IT) companies. Few of them are engaged in waste-picking, retrieving dry waste and sorting and sending the sorted material for recycling. Such important people yet affluent society at large thinks of them as illegal and criminal. Municipal authorities have acted in an arbitrary manner and not given eviction notice.

The residents of the given settlement are all migrants from Delhi, Bihar, and Bengal. The irony of the situation is that the affluent residents who complained about the workers’ residence are themselves migrant workers (‘outsiders’) in the city. The workers have been mistreated by Bangalore municipal authorities and the apartment complex residents and stand in violation of the fundamental rights – Right to life, Freedom to travel and reside in any part of India and right to practice occupation and the violation of Indian contract law.

(Pictures have been taken and published after the due permission of the workers)

Kabir Arora

Every neighbourhood in Bengaluru is trying its best to manage its own waste. They in their own way are setting precedents. Earlier, we read about HSR Layout and the adventures of HSR Layout Citizen Forum to create a ‘Zero Waste Community’. In the current post, I will be taking you to ELCITA, an acronym for Electronic City Industrial Township Authority. ELCITA provides for the infrastructure and service needs of the Electronic city. The electronic city is a specially allocated area for spurring industrial growth, home to 158 companies, spread across more than 903 acres.

According to Solid Waste Management (SWM) Rules 2016, all local bodies, even industrial townships must manage their waste in decentralized and scientific manner. ELCITA has tendered out its waste management services to Hasiru Dala Innovations (HDI), a social enterprise working in waste management and focusing on securing livelihoods of waste-pickers. HDI won the tender to provide waste management services earlier this year and is providing waste management services to ELCITA since May 2018. HDI collects segregated waste from 90 companies and provides waste management services on a user-pay model: pay as you throw/generate. HDI is authorized to collect food waste, dry and garden waste. It is receiving 3 tons of dry waste, 1 ton of food waste and half a ton of garden waste, plus less than a ton of mixed waste (reject waste). The dry waste is sent to the facility set up by ELCITA. Food waste is being sent to composting and biogas facility. In future, some it will be processed in the ELCITA waste management facility. The garden waste is given to a farmer, who composts it and use it for farming. The details of the facility are provided below.

ELCITA has set up an elaborate waste aggregation and sorting centre, spread over less than an acre of land. It is operated by HDI. Currently, it houses a dry waste sorting facility: Hopper (to pump in the dry waste on the conveyor belt uniformly), conveyor belt and aggregation sheds. The sorters sit next to the belt and pick up the material, according to the different categories and place it in the bins based on the categories: paper goes in the bin of paper, carton boxes in the bin of carton boxes, hard plastic in the bin dedicated to hard plastic. The dry waste is sorted in more than 20 categories. Later stored in the allocated sheds till the buyer from recycling industry trucks it away. To give an illustration, the sorted tissue papers are sent to paper mills. Similar supply chains exist for other recyclable material. In dry waste, multi-layered plastic is also received. In the absence of any sustainable facility, it is sent to cement plants for co-processing, as per the prescription in the SWM Rules 2016. The facility has space for composting food waste. It is under renovation, once up and running, it will convert 400 kilograms of food waste in compost, particularly, vegetable peels and citrus fruits as the current bio-methanization plants cannot absorb them. There is space allocated for electronic waste aggregation. Its collection, aggregation and disposal are contracted out to 4R Recyclers by ELCITA. The facility also receives mixed waste, termed as reject waste. The mixed waste includes wet and dry together and some amount of sanitary waste from the small eateries. Earlier the facility was receiving around 2 tons of such waste, now it is less than a ton. The reduction in receipt of mixed/reject waste was possible due to continuous efforts by HDI team. A study was done of the companies’ segregation level and feedback was given to ELCITA and the companies on the segregation. After a couple of warnings, ELCITA supported HDI and wrote a warning to the companies sending mixed waste and penalties for the same. This helped reduce mixed waste by about 10%. They kept on insisting on picking up ony segregated waste and informed all the waste generators about the ways to do segregation, further enforcing color coding for segregation of waste, different colour bins for different waste.  The mixed waste is being sorted and then sent to respective units for processing or aggregation. HDI is pursuing the waste generators to ensure segregation at source and in future, the mixed waste collection and sorting will be completely phased out. Most of the dry waste received in the facility is low-value material, thanks to the efforts in aggregation and sorting, even low-value waste is going for recycling.

The facility plus waste collection service employs 29 workers 1 manager and 1 supervisor. Some of the workers are erstwhile waste-pickers. The minimum salary paid to any employee (in this case: the sorters) is INR 12000 plus all the benefits which an employer needs to contribute as per the labour laws.

The waste collection starts at 5 o clock in the morning and concludes at 5 in the evening. The waste collection is done by 3 trucks. Majority of the waste collected is dry, therefore, it is voluminous. When the truck gets full, they come to the facility and unload the waste and go for collection again. In a day, 6 tons of waste is collected, in 3 shifts by each truck. The time of operation of the facility is 9-5 when the waste is sorted and aggregated.

With all required technology and workforce in place, the ELCITA waste collection and management facility operated by HDI is an ideal of sorts for our cities. It provides employment. It ensures 100 percent collection and makes the waste destination bound.

Koushlya Bai is a waste-picker from Indore, associated with Janvikas Society. She is participating in the meeting of Global Alliance of Wastepickers, as a representative of Alliance of Indian Wastepickers. The meeting is hosted by the recyclers branch (Federación Argentina de Cartoneros, Carreros y Recicladores: FACCyR) of CTEP, a popular workers national union in Argentina.

She is learning how wastepickers have been integrated into Buenos Aires city’s waste management. While doing so, she is constantly comparing the situation at home. Indore has been awarded as the cleanest city in India by Swachh Bharat Surveykshan (Clean India Survey). The city of Indore is clean, yet its wastepickers have been marginalized. Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Movement) guidelines mandate inclusion of wastepickers. Very little has happened in that regard in Indore.

When she was told that wastepickers in Buenos Aires get a monthly social assistance of 6000 pesos (INR 13000). There are other wastepickers, who get the salary of pesos 11000 (INR 24000) from the municipal corporation for doing door to door collection of dry waste, plus the dry waste is theirs, the wastepickers have a right to mobility, where they can travel in public buses for free. She immediately asked, why are we not having such a system in Indore.

In Indore, the wastepickers right to access dry waste is restricted. Only some wastepickers are allowed to retrieve waste from the dumping ground and they too have to sell it to the dealers, who have set up shops near the dump-yard. They never get a good price. If they complain to municipal authorities for low prices for retrieved and sorted material, they are not allowed to enter the dump site again.

She shared the story of their struggle with wastepickers from all over the world and stated that Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Mission) or any such programme in any country is incomplete without wastepickers included and their right to dry waste recognised. She shared that they are asking for wastepickers (one waste-picker per truck) to go along the truck, they can take the dry waste during the collection, later sort and send it for recycling. Currently, the dry waste is taken to dump yard and wastepickers are asked to retrieve the waste, once it is dumped. Further, wastepickers should be given INR 5000 for dry waste collection from door to door, when they go along with the trucks.

Date: 07^th December 2018

To

Mr Vinod Kumar Jindal

National Mission Director

Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan

Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs

New Delhi

Copied to: Union Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs, Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, Secretary, Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, Commissioner of Urban Administration and Development Department of Government of Madhya Pradesh, Commissioner of Indore Municipal Corporation and National Commission for Safaikarmacharis and National Human Rights Commission.

Subject- Condemning Indore Municipal Corporation’s action of evicting waste-pickers from their work and request for taking action in that regard.

Respected Sir,

It has come to our notice from various news reports that to prepare for Swachh Bharat Sarveykshan 2019, Indore Municipal Corporation is evicting waste-pickers from their work. The municipal authorities have deputed officers to ‘catch’ waste-pickers. Once the waste-pickers are caught by the authorities, their picked up and sorted dry waste is confiscated. In some cases, the officers have physically assaulted the waste-pickers for doing their work. It is important to mention that the majority of waste-pickers in Indore city are women and belonged to the Scheduled Castes list notified by the various levels of government.

The municipal authorities are asking waste-pickers to pick and sort material at the dump-site. The dump-site is distant for many waste-pickers. The existing workers in the dump-site are unwelcoming to the waste-pickers. Instead of seeking to upgrade livelihoods, the Indore Municipal Corporation has taken steps to further marginalize and exclude those that the SWM rules specifically require the municipal authorities to protect and integrate.

All these actions stand in gross violation of Article 21 of the Indian constitution, which guarantees the fundamental right to livelihood, Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan guidelines and Solid Waste Management Rules 2016 which acknowledged the ‘right to work’ of waste-pickers. Indore has won the award of being the cleanest city in Swachh Bharat Saryvekshan twice. That said, there is no improvement in the lives of waste-pickers. Awarding the top prize to a corporation violating the fundamental rights of its poorest and marginalized is a slap in the face of inclusive measures purportedly enshrined in the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan and all rules and regulations directing urban local bodies to ensure integration of waste-pickers. The actions of Indore Municipal Corporation will encourage cities across the country looking to Indore for inspiration to take such illegal and inhuman actions against waste-pickers.

As per the SWM Rules 2016, the waste-pickers have right to identity card, access dry waste, the municipal authorities are mandated to create identification mechanism and provide for sorting and aggregation places for the collected waste, waste-pickers have right to training and skill up-gradation, right to integration in door to door collection of waste and operations of waste management facilities including Material Recovery Facility.

So far, the Indore Municipal Corporation had issued identity cards to 2000 waste pickers in the city two years ago. The validity of the identity cards is for one year. In most other cities, the validity of such identity cards is either five or ten years, as renewing every year is a cumbersome task both for the municipal authorities and waste-pickers.  This patchwork integration of very few waste pickers in Indore has meant the loss of livelihoods and unsafe and unfair working conditions for most of the waste-pickers.

Unfortunately, waste pickers have been excluded from the very activities of the door to door collection of segregated waste that would have helped them to transform their lives. Waste pickers can access recyclable materials at the landfill site and that too only after compaction. They have been forcibly removed from their workplace, the streets and dumped in the landfill.  Their right to sell the materials in the open market has been curtailed and they are forced to sell their materials only to the facility operator. This has disrupted the recycling chain and caused unemployment downstream.

We again state that SWM Rules, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan guidelines mandate waste-pickers inclusion and not exclusion. We reiterate the demands, we made in the earlier letters sent to you (they are given below) and other concerned authorities and further request you to take severe action against the officers who are involved in physical abuse and forcible eviction of waste-pickers from their work.

Demands of waste-pickers organizations:

1. All waste pickers in Indore are registered as provided for under the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 and provided with identity cards, with a minimum validity of 5-10 years. The existing organizations working waste-pickers should be involved in the identification and enumeration process.
2. Waste pickers are given the opportunity to join the Indore Municipal Corporation for the door to door collection on priority with the physical inability to perform work as the only criteria for exclusion.
3. Material Recovery Work sheds are established at all the transfer stations where waste pickers should be permitted to access recyclable materials prior to compaction in the capsules.
4. Only materials that have no market and are rejected by waste pickers should be compacted in the capsules.
5. The wastepickers who are interested in alternative vocations or physically incapable of performing day-long collection activity should be given training for skill up-gradation, as prescribed in Solid Waste Management Rules 2016. The skill up-gradation can cover areas like the door to door collection of waste, event waste management, recycling plastic material. The waste pickers who are interested in carrying out composting work be trained and hired as workers in the composting plants and for in situ composting. All these opportunities constitute as green jobs and contribute to sustainable development of Indore city.
6. Wastepickers should be provided space for the aggregation of materials recovered from the waste. The wastepickers should be given occupational safety gear including gloves, shoes, aprons and uniforms (wherever required) on the timely basis.
7. The occupational identity card of waste pickers is considered valid for benefits under all government schemes even if they don’t have a BPL card.
8. The penalization of wastepickers by municipal/state authorities should stop. The wastepickers above the age of 60 should not be stopped from working. They are a productive workforce, who are earning their livelihood.

We look forward to your intervention in ensuring justice to the 3000 waste pickers of Indore city. We also request a meeting with waste-pickers and their representatives in this regard to take the matter forward.

List written by the Alliance of Indian Waste-pickers, list of endorsing organizations:

All India Kabadi Mazdoor Mahasangh, Delhi

Hasiru Dala, Bengaluru, Karnataka

Janvikas Society, Indore, Madhya Pradesh

Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat, Pune, Maharashtra

Parisar Bhagini Vikas Sangha, Mumbai and Thane, Maharashtra

Parisar Sakhi Vikas Sanstha, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra

Stree Mukti Sanghatana, Mumbai, Maharashtra

SwaCH, Pune, Maharashtra

Testimonies of exclusion

Reflection of Hari Chakyar, an advertising professional and volunteer at the Buguri Community Library, Banashankari

I volunteered to tag along with the Buguri Community Library’s visit to the Bannerghatta National Park on Sunday, December 30. Here’s my account of entire experience.

The morning of December 30, I reached the library earlier than any of the children arrived. Having visited the library earlier, I am acquainted with the arduous task of getting the children to follow instructions and I wanted to be around to help.

Once the activity room was duly filled, Lakshmi Miss asked them where they were to go and the word ‘zoo’ echoed while one little voice piped in with ‘Bannerghatta National Park’. She then reminded everyone of dos and don’ts in the national park – flowers and leaves are not to be plucked, litter is not to be littered and so on. There were separate instructions for the bus too.

The children were paired, divided into groups and assigned to each volunteer. My team had two Lakshmis, one Vidya, one Sreenidhi and Vijay. Vidya wore a pink frock but I kept thinking she’s wearing a cream-yellow frock. My brain must be playing tricks on me, I thought. It took me half a day to realize Vidya had a twin sister who was wearing the cream-yellow frock! Can you imagine how relieved I was that my brain didn’t need checking?

We boarded the bus and sang all the way to the park. Some of the snacks that were to be had in the park were consumed in the bus.

It was a Sunday and holiday season and the park was thronging with people. While somebody got tickets, we watched a mother and her son stare at a monkey that was eating something. We disobeyed touch-me-nots, made friends with a stray dog and talked about our favourite animals. For some reason, everybody in my group thought ‘butterfly’ was a great candidate for their favourite animal position.

Thankfully the butterfly park was visited first. I had never seen one before and was delighted to be inside. We watched a boring presentation about butterfly life-stages and the types of butterflies in the park. I felt like I was sitting in my office conference room until one of the little girls asked me for water from the big bottle every volunteer had.

Lunch was had outside the park, on the lawns. Pulao and raita for everybody.

After everybody had eaten, it was time to enter the zoo. New groups were formed once more and sent into the park one by one. The first thing everybody saw was ‘black and white’ horses. That’s just what I call them. The children obviously knew they are called zebras. I have no idea how time flew after that. We saw pacing tigers, relaxing leopards, talkative birds, creepy snakes, turtles climbing on top of each other and dinosaurs that did not move at all.

Through the entire time inside the park, the new group of seven I was with, would find everyone else, do a quick headcount and only then proceed to the next exhibit. It was impressive to see them taking charge and being responsible.

It would be unfair if I didn’t particularly mention two children that stood out. Sreenidhi, in Class II, didn’t let go of my hand the entire time, almost as if she was afraid I would get lost in the crowd. She also made it a point to speak to me in English once she realized my Tamil or Kannada skills were not going to get me anywhere. Someone else decided that I was a ‘koothi’ or ‘kothi’, which Sreenidhi translated for me. Apparently they had named me monkey, a title I am proud of. There were some other instances too were she translated phrases in another language for my benefit.

Language skills that are good enough to translate languages are a sign of great intelligence. At Class II, Sreenidhi is doing great and there’s no doubt that she’ll excel.

Sreenivas, fondly known as Cheenu, surprised me with his range of facial expressions and comic timing. He would tap my hand and shrink away, pretending to be scared of me, as if I was to take his cue and pretend to be a predator or a man-eating monster. I believe he is an actor in the making.

I wish the park wasn’t so crowded and I wish we had more time inside and I wish we actually got to do the safari. The wishlist is long but on top of the list was the need to have all the children safely back home. While that happened, a lot of fun was also had, which makes the entire trip completely worth it and a total success. I heard that this was a trip everyone was looking forward to and I am delighted that it happened and that I got to be a part of it.

To

The Commissioner

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).

Bengaluru.

Memorandum

We the wastepickers and itinerant buyers and small scrap dealers ask and demand that our livelihoods be protected by integrating us into the solid waste management system of the city.

We are listing the reasons why we form skilled labour and how we support the city in keeping it clean and help in resource recovery from garbage and create robust recycling industry in Karnataka and specifically Bangalore Metropolitan city:

1) When the city had a gap in service of door to door collection system, we cleaned the black spots aka corners with accumulated garbage, picked the recyclables thus making resource recovery possible. In a study done in 2011 shown that daily 1050 tons of waste is picked, sorted, aggregated and sent for recycling by us in Bangalore. With our work, we help municipal authorities save 84 crores of rupees annually in just collection and transportation alone.

2) We are thankful to municipal authorities for recognizing our contribution with the issuance of occupational identity cards to us.

3) With better efficiency in the door to door collection of waste. The waste on the streets has reduced. It is a good thing for the city. It has reduced our access to waste and destroyed traditional means to earn our livelihood. We are unable to support our school going children, we are forced to withdraw them from schools. We are going hungry. We want to be a part of the cleaning the city and not completely banished.

4) With the introduction of wastepickers in operations of Dry Waste Collection Centers (DWCCs) and the door to door collection of dry waste, some of us became a part of the system to resolve city’s garbage concerns. Such an initiative of municipal authorities was nationally lauded. Waste-pickers across India were inspired and decided to follow the Bangalore model. Even though only 33 centres have been given to us, yet it is a good start in the right direction. Our work in 33 centres bettered the waste management services, increased segregation levels and ensured materials reach appropriate destination i.e. recycling units. Many citizens vouch for our work. And want the waste-pickers to be included in all the DWCCs in the city. If our payments are not delayed for more than 2 months, we can clean up the city and show a metro city can implement segregation of waste at source. If all DWCCs are issued to waste-pickers for operations, it has the potential of creating more than 2000 new jobs, alternative occupation to waste-pickers and increasing the segregation levels in the city. We have been doing door to door collection in 33 wards and 4, 65,000 households with 73 vehicles and provided jobs to 350 people which include jobs to sorters, helpers and drivers.  From March 2017 to date we have collected about 13460.19 tons of dry waste and from that, we have sent tons of MLP and 1134.67 tons of non-recyclable dry waste( MLP) for co-processing.  Right now we are collecting with 70% efficiency if we get support from the government we can reach up to 100% efficiency.

5) There is an explicit recognition in the Solid Waste Management (SWM) Rules that waste pickers provide a vital service. In fact, Rule 11(1) (c) specifically calls for the explicit recognition and acknowledgement of the primary role played by waste pickers in reducing waste in India. Further, Rule 15 of the SWM Rules now makes it mandatory for local bodies to formulate broad guidelines and to create a system that facilitates the integration of waste pickers into the waste management system. In the sections on the responsibility of waste generators, the waste generators are asked to give the recyclables to register to waste-pickers. The similar prescription is made in in the Plastic Waste Management Rules. Such provisions are an acknowledgement of the work undertaken in Bengaluru, putting the theoretical framework of the rules in practice.

6) The inclusion of wastepickers in solid waste management not just increases the efficiency of the system. It satisfies the goals of social justice and poverty alleviation. All these are the areas listed as responsibilities of urban local bodies in the constitution of India. The Karnataka High Court order on December 16^th, 2016 has a reference of wastepickers be given recyclables by the households.

With this background given, we ask for the following:

We, the members of Hasiru Dala and CCRA (Clean City Recyclers association) representing 8000 wastepickers, itinerant waste buyers, small scrap dealers of Bangalore city ask the following:

• Continuing issuance of occupational identity cards to wastepickers as prescribed by recently notified Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016.
• Issuance of occupational identity cards to scrap dealers and other informal waste collectors.
• All the DWCCs be issued to waste-pickers for operations. All DWCCs operated by waste-pickers be authorized to do door to door collection of dry waste.
• Timely payment for the driver, helper and vehicle maintenance, engaged in door to door collection of dry waste.
• Create a safe and secure market place for scrap business.
• Set up a committee for guiding and monitoring efficient solid waste management in the city as prescribed by rules and Swachh Bharat guidelines and include representatives of the wastepickers organization in the same.
• Facilitate viability gap funding to support micro-enterprises of wastepickers and informal waste collectors to expand their business as a part of National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM).

We look forward to your continued support in our struggle and we hope that you would champion our cause at the municipal level to bring the changes that we would aspire for.

Contact number: Hasiru Dala: +917829777737

Sincerely

Lakshmi                      Anslem            Krishan            Annamma                    Alamelu

Indira                          Ajay                Manjamma                  Mansoor          Nalini

Georgina Jarman Lamare & Kabir Arora

With the support of the National Safaikarmacharis Finance & Development Corporation (NSKFDC) and Union Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Central Institute of Plastics Engineering & Technology (CIPET) has initiated three- and six-months programme of skill development in plastic processing. The Alliance of Indian Waste-pickers reached out to the NSKFDC to provide that training to waste-pickers and their sons and daughters and include them as a priority group. The training is given free of cost, hostel facilities are provided by CIPET and later support is given for placement. The placements are in plastic manufacturing and recycling units with market competitive salaries. The minimum requirement to be eligible for the training is being 8^th Pass to 12^th Pass and above the age of 18.

Last year, the Alliance members based in different cities, Bangalore, Vijayawada, Guntur, Delhi, Shillong, Mumbai, Pune visited the CIPET facilities in their respective states to learn about the training programme. The waste-pickers group based in Shillong: Iainehskhem Self Help Group and Bangalore: Hasiru Dala, followed up the conversation with CIPET and pursued enrolment of their members’ children in the three months course. A biodata with information about education status, languages known, a copy of the address proof and copies of school certificates is all it requires to get enrolled.

After the visit, four daughters: Cynthia Marboh, Ibapynhunshisha Kharnaior, Lasanshisha Syjemlieh, Lavina Lyngdoh Peinlang and two sons: Jamshaphrang Syjemlieh, Saiborlang Noongsiej of waste-pickers in Shillong enrolled in the given course at CIPET, Guwahati. The course provided machine operating skills for manufacturing thermoplastic and thermoset plastic. The machines include Injection Moulding Machine, Blow Moulding Machine, Extrusion Moulding Machine, Hand Injection Moulding Machine, Extrusion Blow Moulding Machine. All six have finished the training and have been placed in a company Hyderabad with market competitive salaries and other benefits.

Researchers: Anjanee Patel, Ambrosie, Jaspreet Singh, Indha Mahoor, Nalini Shekar, Karthik Natarajan, Vishwanath C and Xiao-Dong Liu.

Bengaluru is the second city in India, after Mumbai to have Dry Waste Collection Centres (DWCCs). The city civic body: Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Pallike (Greater Bangalore Municipal Corporation-BBMP) started setting up DWCCs since 2012. The sanctioned number of DWCCs is 198. There are 166 DWCCs functioning in the city, with the capacity ranging from 0.5 tons a day to 4.5 tons a day. The DWCCs are operated with the participation of waste-pickers and informal waste collectors. 33 DWCCs are supported by Hasiru Dala (the ones operated by waste-pickers of which 14 are managed by women wastepickers) have a special order to engage in the bi-weekly collection of the dry waste directly. They were set up to provide decentralized dry waste aggregation and sorting facilities within the neighbourhood. The installation of DWCCs and inclusion of waste-pickers is a laudable initiative. The DWCCs receive the dry waste including high-value recyclables, low/no value materials like multi-layered plastic, rejects including bedding, shoes, cloth. The low-value waste collection has increased, around 82 percent of the total dry waste collected, after segregated door to door collection has been initiated by the Dry Waste Collection Operators. This has posed imposed important questions about the present design of DWCCs.

The design of most of DWCCs has been developed based on the BBMP circular issued on 15.02.2013 and based on an older understanding of Dry Waste management. In order to systematically understand the gaps and challenges, early this year (Feb-March 2019), a group of four students from University of Washington (GCIL program), with the staff of Hasiru Dala  conducted an exhaustive probe on the condition of 16 DWCCs, they documented the centres for their operational issues, structural condition and capacity expected vs fulfilled. The survey was conducted by Anjanee Patel (M.Sc.Environmental Engineering.), Ambrosie Longrie (B.Sc. Environmental Engineering.) and Xiao-Dong Liu (Civil Engineering), and Jaspreet Singh, (Medical Anthropology). The Study was coordinated by Indha Mahoor (Project Manager) and Karthik Natarajan (Architect and Housing Project Coordinator) along with on-field associates of Hasiru Dala. The survey looked into the design, composition of waste, additionally considered the number of people working there and their everyday lives and their role in the solid waste management of the city. Most of the DWCCs are haphazardly installed four-walled structures with tin or cement roof. These DWCCs lie in structural disrepair, due to functioning at over capacity

Common design challenges in the DWCCs outlined below:

1. Lighting and ventilation: Owing to the makeshift nature of the structures, they are poorly lit and ventilated, making it tough and unhealthy for the people working inside for hours together. Many DWCCs depend on electricity for both light and ventilation, which owing to the frequent power cuts end up being unreliable.
2. Wiring left open: Due to makeshift cabling, poor maintenance and repair, and the heat generated from the tin roofs, the electrical wires end up becoming a fire hazard
3. Water and sanitation: In most of the DWCCs surveyed, there was less to no attention paid on toilets or plumbing. Most facilities simply lacked toilets, and the ones that had toilets, the plumbing wasn’t functioning or no connection with the sewage lines.

5. Cleanliness: When households don’t segregate their waste and send, the mixed and reject waste ends up reaching the DWCCs and lies there until it is picked up or sent away.  There is no proper stocking of reject waste.
6. Construction issues: Improper construction know-how and make-shift buildings mean structurally un-sound buildings, add to that the age and lack of repair/upgrades to the DWCCs a lot of them are falling apart. 

   
   In many of the DWCCs, one can notice parts of the floors and even the walls have started to cave in due to ill-considered structural design and usage of substandard materials to build these DWCCs quick and cheap. The foundations in many have been badly damaged from rodents digging underneath. And in one case the DWCC is built over a drain, which could collapse at any time.

7. Roof leakage: On the rainy days, leaky roofs and seepage through wall cracks and windows lead to damage of high-value recyclables like newspapers, magazines, and cardboard boxes. Temporary fixes each year stresses the existing structure further leading to further damage. This costs money for the operators and no provision of a long-term solution.
8. Property Damage: The land outside the building, where the loading and unloading are done, was surfaced only in few DWCCs, and over the years even those have developed cracks and broken under the load of the moving goods. This has led to uneven settling of the land and unsafe loading/unloading. The water logging that happens in these fissures also leads to poor working conditions.
9. Pests, Rodents, and animals: Many DWCCs have rats and insects running through the cracks in the floors and walls. In a few DWCCs where the compound wall has been damaged over time, there have been cases of dog-bites from the dogs squatting on the DWCC premises. Snakes have also been observed on rainy days.
10. Working conditions: Tin sheds heat up during the day, and in unventilated spaces, they create difficult working conditions. Rainy days are especially hard to work in because recyclables get damp and dirty and the paper ends up losing value. Mattresses that don’t move out of these DWCCs end up soaking in water and getting mouldy, making their disposal challenging.
11. Space Constraints: A lot of DWCCs have been allotted smaller space than the capacity requires. Since from door-to-door collection of dry waste, the majority of the waste that comes is non-recyclables and rejects, space ends up being overrun with bags of multi-layered plastics, mattresses.

Remedial design suggestions to better DWCCs

Hasiru Dala has experimented with few design changes in the municipal ward 44, Marapana Palya which has shown visible results in both operations and in the lives of those working at the centre for the last three years.

Based on the observations from the study, a list of considerations is shared below, which will help build more future- ready DWCCs. They take into consideration, growth, working conditions, types of waste received (beyond recyclables) and operational necessities.

1. The flow of waste through the DWCCs

• Unsorted waste to be stored at the entrance.
• Plastic should always be at the end;
• Paper can be stored in the front which can be saved in case of fire.
• No electrical wires in the stocking area of plastics and other inflammable materials that need to be stored in DWCC.
• A conveyor belt is essential to improve the productivity of the workers and provide ergonomically appropriate work condition.
• The hopper for conveyer belt should be below the floor level, it makes it easy for the workers to unbag the materials for conveyor belt
• Frequently saleable materials should be store closer to the door,
• Rarely sold items (like metal) which are generally low volume materials items move to the upper or mezzanine floor.
• Minor electronic waste should go on upper or mezzanine floor. It is low in weight and takes a while to collect and transport.
• Space for baling (space around baling machine to walk and move around)
• Non-recyclables storage typically needs a large space.
• Availability of reject waste bins that can be closed and difficult for rodents to reach.

2. Facilities to be provided in an optimally designed facility:

• Office space and changing rooms with lockers for the workers.
• Toilets (overhead water talk for drinking and sanitation use) with a sanitation pipe connection.
• Appropriate space for a fire extinguisher.
• Appropriate space for weighing machine
• Record keeping (Computer + Storage)
• Display of boards that depict process, types of waste being sorted and other functioning’.
• Display rate card of material prices.

Things to consider in the structure:

1. Radiant heat both inside and outside: To save time during construction, a lot of these DWCCs were built with tin or cement sheet sheds. The temperatures inside them during high sun times rises to unworkable conditions. To prevent this, wherever suitable, insulating materials (for example Thermocol) should be used.  Large windows should be on the north side, and openings to facilitate cross ventilation should be provided.

2. Soil tests: Prior to construction soil tests to be made mandatory and the structural design must take into account seepage in the land once waste starts to be collected in the DWCCs.
   We also must design these DWCCs as high moving load areas and the driveways must account for heavy loads in peak hours.

3. High ceiling The DWCCs with enough volume will help with working conditions during the summer months. It will allow for expansion of the centres capacity once the current structure is performing at optimum levels. The upper deck can be used as office space, storage of slow-moving light weight items.

4. Roof lighting: The transparent panels need to be used to help light or use turbo vents to help ventilate buildings without the need for power. This will help save costs and minimise health issues (especially respiratory issues) from working in dark and closed off conditions.

5. Robust materials: One of the major issues with the DWCCs surveyed was the condition of the door openings and windows. Over time, with use and neglect, they are either permanently closed off or permanently open, the glass or infill panels are broken or cracked, and they provide no protection from the elements. The material for the doors and windows should be robust, which will survive harsh usage in high traffic areas and will be sufficiently lightweight to be used by anyone at the DWCCs.

6. Ferrocement door and window shutters: These will go a long way in this regard. They are hardy and waterproof enough to withstand any use and with the right detailing can be used for years without falling apart, unlike their metal or wood counterparts.

7. Tremix flooring Internally (VDF): This is an industrial monolithic flooring, designed and used specifically in high traffic areas where tiles and other flooring tends to crack. This will also help fight the settlement of the structure in case of wet or loose soil. It is higher in terms of set-up costs, in the long term, it will pay out in reduced repair costs through the life span of the building.

8. Skirting to prevent Rodent infestation from wall cracks: In order to avoid rodent entering from corners of the building (as it is very easy to make holes in the building), the skirting should be at 45% and the gap can be filled with broken ceramic or glass pieces.

9. Appropriate bin for tube-lights
10. Annual audit: The condition of these DWCCs should be investigated once a year, to fix problems early on. The facilities that the people at the centres use need more frequent checks and repairs, but the overall space can be checked once a year and major repairs can be avoided.

Value Added Measures:

• CCTV camera.
• Security Room like a fishing bowl style that will promote easy supervision
• Garden to keep the smells at check. Specific spaces of planting flowers that will enhance fragrance ( For example Parijat / Nyctanthes, Jasmines, Tube Roses, Raat Ki Rani / Cestrum, Sweet pea, Champa, Kewda/ Ketaki, Gardenia/ Cape Jasmine, Sweet Alyssum, is recommended).
• Mural outside that depicts the functioning of the centre and the people who run it.
• Small composting unit to discard wet waste that has come with the dry waste. A storage drum for dry leaves.
• Pest control measures- regular pest/rodent control either chemical and or electronic device.
• Rainwater harvesting for surface runoff.
• Solar panel for light, water pump and simple baler.
• Proper sanitary bin that has been collected in dry waste

The story of the second cleanest city in India-Bhopal and those who keep the city clean.

Kabir Arora

The waste-pickers turned sanitary workers (Safai Karmacharis) in Bhopal are ill-paid, salary is irregular. They work for long hours and have no provision of medical leave. If skipped the day of work on the account of sickness, an amount of INR 100-200 is immediately deducted from the salary. They are not being provided with any occupational safety gear, many workers showed bruises and cuts on their hands, thanks to the presence of glass and blade in unsegregated waste.

In 2007, Samman (an organization based in Bhopal) started organizing waste-pickers in the city. The organization was keen to better the livelihood of the waste-pickers. Later, in 2008 they engaged them in the door to door collection of waste. The organization charged a user fee of INR 30 per month/household and paid a salary of INR 3000/month. Apart from the salary, the waste-pickers received the dry waste, which they sorted and sold to the recyclers.

In 2013, the municipal corporation decided to take over the door to door collection, along with that they got the sanitation workers on its payroll. Over a period of time, the city authorities increased their salary from INR 3000 to around 7000. In hand after unknown deductions, sanitation workers receive around INR 5090 to 5200. The payment of salaries is quite irregular. A few days back, sanitation workers went on strike due to non-payment of salaries for three months. Within a few days, the salary of one month was released and they were told that the rest of the two months salary will come in instalments. There are no holidays, if one gets sick and takes a leave, there is an immediate deduction made from the salary. There is no medical support or occupational safety gear provided.

Their employment itself is a grey area. The city authorities have not issued any occupational identity card for its workers, there are sketchy plans to do so. They have to report at work from 6-7 in the morning and the collection goes on till 2 in the afternoon. They have been provided rickshaws to do the collection. Within the same time, they have to empty their rickshaw in the moving truck and continue door to door collection. Most of the times, the truck is delayed and they have to wait for it to come till 4 in the late afternoon or 6 in the evening, extending the 8-hour shift to almost 10-12 hours.

Even though segregation is mandatory, the sanitary workers are given unsegregated materials. The municipal authorities ask them to segregate the collected material. They segregate the material and deposit it in the moving small trucks, put in place for collection. Later while transferring to the compactor, everything is mixed up again.

Impact of the announcement of Single-Use Plastic Ban

Their meagre and irregular earning makes them dependent on dry waste (recyclables) retrieved from the collection. Since the announcement of Single-Use Plastic Ban and lack of clarity about the items to be banned, even the prices of material with a high rate of recycling have gone down from INR 30/kilograms to INR 10/kilograms. This has created havoc across the country in the waste (recycling) markets. According to Sunita Rani (name changed), ‘पहले नोटबंदी करके हमारा बुरा हाल किया अब कबाड़ बंदी करके हमारा वही हाल है। (Pehle Notebandi Karke Hamara Bura Haal Kiya Ab Kabadbandi Karke Hamara Wahi Haal Hai) -Translation: First our condition became deplorable thanks to Notebandi (demonetization) and now it is because of Kabadbandi (single-use plastic ban). Taking the strand of conversation further, Har Narain (name changed) said ‘we still have some employment and income, imagine the condition of our kabadi (waste-picker) brothers and sisters, who are completely dependent on recyclable plastic material for their livelihood’.

Rohini Malur

When we think of marine/ocean plastic pollution, we think of now-famous images by western photographers – the seahorse coiled around a cotton bud, the turtle with a straw stuck in its nose, causing so much pain and fear. Whales with their bellies full of plastic, and seagulls with their beaks stuck in can rings. 

Our own beaches are not much better. Plastic bottles, plastic bags, food containers – this debris is found in every urban city, and it is worse in beachy areas where tourism creates an influx of people, seasonally throughout the year. This is on top of the regular solid waste produced by locals and residents.

This deluge of plastic is not localised to the beach. Take Mangalore, for example. The rivers Gurpura and Nethravathi are a pride and joy for the city, but they have become carriers of toxic industrial waste, discarded plastics and even food waste to the oceans. 

It is estimated that plastic will outnumber if the fish in the ocean by 2050 – and those fish will have bellies full of plastic. As bags, microbeads, and sundry everyday items. 

With the support from Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO), an international organization, Hasiru Dala partnered with Anti Plastic Drive in the early 2019, joining hands to raise awareness of marine plastic pollution in the city, as well as encourage and help facilitate the establishment of solid waste segregation and management infrastructure.

Hasiru Dala staff conducted a survey of the waste dumping hotspots in the city, and created a geotagged map to show the worst spots. 

What we find as we work in Mangalore is that it is possible for citizens and authorities to overlook the problem of dumping hotspots – a community blind eye to waste and garbage. This is not deliberate – solid waste management has to be a conscious concern and cannot be organised without dedicated planning and awareness. 

How do we raise awareness but also kindle the spirit of engagement in citizens? Hasiru Dala’s Mangalore staff worked with student volunteers, performed street plays, and launched a campaign with Anti Pollution Drive called Mangalore Meri Jaan (Mangalore My Love)- the aim is to remind us that we need to keep our cities and oceans clean not just to address a global plastic pollution crisis but also because we have a bond with our lands, with our homes. 

Why does so much plastic enter our rivers and oceans?

There is no escaping the fact that this is entirely down to human consumption behaviour. The cycle of buy-use-throw-buy is creating (literal) islands of plastic and other waste. Industries still dispose of their effluents into water bodies as an “easy” measure of waste disposal. Our waters are beginning to smell of decay of toxic waste. Animals in the oceans, rivers are poisoned. 

It might not be possible to change the consumption-disposal cycle. But it might be possible to change the way in which we dispose of materials. Hasiru Dala is currently organising, awareness raising and meeting with officials in Mangalore. A Plan of Action, “Ocean Pollution Solid Waste Management at Ullal (Empowering Waste Pickers)” proposal, drafted by Anti-Pollution Drive and Hasiru Dala, was proposed to the Municipal Commissioner and Health commissioner to create a Solid Waste Management cycle in the Ullal Ward  and was accepted.

The hope is that with an engaged municipal body, and active, educated citizens, the Mangalore riverline and shores can be cleaned, and kept clean, for the foreseeable future. This is a replicable solution that can be taken up in other cities. A shared love for our surroundings and a vision for the future is all that is needed.