The ignored environmentalists Ankita Chakraborty October 31, 2013
Most city dwellers wake up to the call of the neighbourhood kabadiwallah (wastepicker). It’s a familiar wake up call. But that is where all familiarity with the kabadiwallah ends. On most mornings, the kabadiwallah pedals through residential colonies with a slow, persistent pace, checking to see if anyone needs to clear out their trash. These are the men who help clean up the city on a daily basis. The kabadiwallahs, along with the local waste pickers, thiawalas (collectors) and recyclers, constitute the informal waste recycling industry. They are the city’s ignored environmentalists. The National Capital Region of Delhi discards around 8,000 tonnes of solid waste every day i.e, 27 trucks of garbage each day. These trucks collect garbage either from the roadside, local municipal dumps or individually from homes. It is then disposed off at the several landfills that dot the capital’s outskirts, such as the Ghazipur or Okhla landfill. These landfills are sites from where the waste pickers collect 15-20 percent of recyclable waste, while the remaining is left to compost. The waste is eventually sold to small godown owners who buy it to segregate recyclable wastes from non-recyclables. In the process, these godown owners also provide employment to waste segregators who help them sort recyclables that are ultimately sold to recycling units. According to Chintan, a local environment research and action group, these landfills which are the producers of green-house gases, have exhausted their full capacity and new land for landfills need to be allocated. Recently nominated for the Google Global Impact Award, Chintan seems to have a solution to the garbage crisis facing the nation’s capital. It proposes to directly connect waste generators of the city to the 16 lakh work force in the informal waste recycling sector through mobile applications. This online mobile service could reduce 500 metric tonnes of waste daily and enable recycling to be measured and monitored. But with scrap prices plummeting and the introduction of incineration units next to landfills, the livelihoods of the people working in this sector are in danger. Bharati Chaturvedi, founder-director of Chintan claims that their novel innovation in waste management could guarantee jobs to at least 1,600 waste pickers by 200,000 waste generators. The scope of employment can only be good news for these kabadiwallahs who frequently face harsh discrimination because of the nature of their profession. In fact, a section in the local police force have only sought to criminalise them either as illegal squatters or reprehensible lawbreakers. Kabadiwallahs also face harassment for bribes at every level: neighbourhood thugs, municipal guards or private contractors to name a few. Since its inception in 1999, Chintan has been advocating legislations such as the recent Plastic Waste Management & Handling Policy in 2011 to provide waste pickers with the dignity of life and livelihood long due to them. Safai Sena, an association of 12,000 waste pickers, collectors and recyclers got registered in 2009 as a result of Chintan’s advocacy. “But the bigger worry is that the children of the waste pickers, deprived of education and vocational skills, are increasingly following their parents into the profession,” said Chaturvedi. As part of their ‘No Child in Trash’ programme, Chintan tutors and helps these children gain admission in mainstream schools and finish their schooling. A total of 5,000 such children from across the city have already been registered in nine different schools so far. Last year, Chaturvedi was even recognized for her contributions with the first ever US Secretary Award for innovation and women’s empowerment. At a time when the city is on the brink of an environmental crisis due to poor waste management, Chintan intends to reduce risks by using technology. The creation of an online platform – where waste generators can meet waste pickers and recycling agents – could lead to more employment opportunities and set the stage for innovative entrepreneurship in the field of waste management. (The views expressed in this column are the writer’s own) Tags: Ankita Chakraborty, Chintan, environment, Ghazipur landfill, Google Global Impact Award, Okhla landfill, waste management, waste pickers - See more at: http://blog.tehelka.com/technology-to-connect-kabadiwallahs-with-the-waste-generators-of-the-city/#sthash.bVjpVxOE.dpuf -- FN Phone +91-832-2409490 Mobile +91-9822122436 Blog: The View From My Window http://wp.me/1c1F About.me: http://about.me/noronhafrederick Goa,1556: http://bit.ly/Goa1556Books2 -- -- Saligao-Net is at http://groups.google.com/group/saligao-net To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe email [email protected] --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Saligao-Net" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
