This Gandhi Jayanti will mark the completion of four years of Swachh Bharat Mission, the largest “behavioural change” programme ever to be launched globally to bring about quantitative and qualitative shift in the way a country addresses sanitation. The good news is that while the quantitative achievements are impressive—the overall sanitation coverage of India has touched 92%—the qualitative shifts are also beginning to become visible.
Take Gurugram as a case in point. Being a real estate, corporate and medical hub, and a city that is continuously expanding, it has immense challenges, both, in terms of waste management and construction and usage of toilets.
The current official figure of waste generation in Gurugram is 850 metric tonnes per day; the city’s waste is growing at almost double the national average of garbage growth rate. Of this, not even 20% is composted or recycled. Besides, the city has a significant moving and floating population, so the need for public, community and mobile toilets is quite high.
The city did improve its ranking in the Swachh Sarvekshan Survey-2018 to 105th rank (out of 4,203 participating cities). This was due to the points earned under the survey for: a) constructing more toilets and meeting “open defecation-free” targets; b) introducing door-to-door waste collection service.
The real success indicator, however, is making attitudinal shifts with respect to open dumping, open waste burning, waste reduction and segregation and in maintaining functional toilets. In fact, it is these qualitative shifts that will help make the Swachh Bharat Mission truly sustainable.
There are some positive trends. For one, awareness level about basic sanitation and waste practices in various communities, such as schools and RWAs as also at the individual level, has gone up. The tendency to throw garbage willy-nilly instead of looking for dustbins has reduced; if nothing else, at least, there is more guilt in throwing garbage on the wayside. It is a little easier now to find a dustbin or a public toilet in parks and public places. Most construction sites now have a mobile toilet for the construction workers. About 20 housing societies, several schools and hotels in Gurugram have started segregating waste and composting wet waste at local level and all bulk waste generators seem more aware and responsible.
Besides, due to regular training and feedback under the Swachh Bharat Mission, there has been a significant capacity build-up among sanitation officers, consultants and workers at the municipal corporation-level.
But it is still a long road ahead. For example, a comprehensive awareness programme for smaller waste generators, such as street vendors and shopkeepers in crowded markets, needs to be put in place. The public toilets built need to remain functional and clean, and the liquid and solid waste of these toilets needs to be treated sustainably through sewers or septic tanks. The city’s landfill at Bandhwari, with mounds of piling waste, from both Gurugram and Faridabad, is not just an eyesore, but a health hazard for all, especially for villagers in its vicinity. Though Ecogreen Energy, the company entrusted with integrated solid waste management of Faridabad and Gurugram, is treating waste at the landfill, the task needs more urgency.
One thing that the Swachh Bharat Mission, too, seems to have missed is that the ragpickers need to be integrated formally into the waste value chain.
Besides, if the city incorporates bylaws on waste, like Delhi, it will not only earn points under the Swachh Sarvekshan 2019 but improve enforcement. Greater citizen’s participation and feedback will shift ownership of the Swachh Bharat Mission from the municipality to the ground-level. For this, city’s waste champions need to be recognised and awarded.
At an individual level, we all can make a difference. Being vigilant and not allowing open waste burning or dumping in our neighbourhoods is the first step. If each one of us individually, or as part of our society/RWA/condominium, segregates our waste and composts our wet waste that in itself will take off 70% of the burden from our landfills. Saying no to plastics by carrying one’s own metal or glass bottles, carrying cloth bags for shopping and avoiding plastic cutlery while hosting parties can reduce dependence on plastics since they are non-biogradable and non-recyclable.
All in all, the Swachh Bharat Mission is an ambitious programme given the scale of investment and the scope of work, covering both waste management and construction of toilets (and now also including sewage and water management) spanning, both, urban and rural India across stakeholders. It has made some difference at the awareness level and at the infrastructure level. Now, the real challenge is to bring about long-lasting attitudinal changes so that it takes the form of a “jan-andolan” (people’s movement) where every citizen feels and acts as a key stakeholder.
(Shubhra Puri is the founder of Gurgaon First, a citizen initiative to promote sustainability in Gurugram through workshops and research books.)
First Published: Oct 02, 2018 15:30 IST
