In Punjab’s first “Smart City”, waste pickers engaged in door-to-door collection are fighting for their basic rights even as they live in a constant fear that a private firm, employed by the the Ludhiana municipal corporation, might render them unemployed.
With more than 90 per cent of door to door waste collection in Ludhiana being done by unorganized sector using 2200 rehras (carts), as per the civic body’s official figures, there are at least 3,500 private waste pickers who are neither employed with the civic body nor any private firm working towrads waste management. Instead, they earn their livelihoods by collecting waste from homes and transporting it to civic body’s 39 secondary collection points, from where it is further transported to landfill by the staff of private firms hired by the municipal corporation.
Earning Rs 60 to 100 per household a month, they say that their fight against “intrusion of private companies in their work” will continue because for them waste picking is not just a source of livelihood, but also a family legacy. Ompal Chanaliya, president, Valmiki Samaj Bachao Andolan, says, “Like other family legacies, ours is waste picking, which has been passed to us by our fathers and grandfathers. We do not find anything wrong or shameful in it. We will not let any private company interfere in our work. It is our only source of livelihood”.
He said that even during the peak of Covid, workers had continued to pick waste from homes but the successive governments have failed to recognize their work as a dignified profession or provide them any facilities. “We were not provided with any safety gear even during peak of Covid but even then we continued to do our work. Can any government list what they have done for those who pick waste from their homes,” asked Chanaliya. “Despite our repeated pleas to cover all secondary collection points, we still have to dump garbage in the open and face several issues. Our safety has never been a priority for any government,” he said, adding “sometimes the waste keeps rotting for days and civic body doesn’t pick it up”.
Meanwhile, at Sarabha Nagar secondary collection point, which is now a covered garbage dump with portable compactors installed, waste picker Udit Kumar is a happy man. “At least here we don’t have to dump garbage in the open. We are also humans,” says Udit, who picks waste from 80 homes and earns Rs 12,000 a month.
In 2011 after the A2Z Group was hired for solid waste management in Ludhiana, the Gurgaon-based firm’s move to start door to door collection had met with strong resistance and protests by waste pickers, and eventually the plan was dropped.
“Former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal had declared that no company will engage in door to door collection and we won’t be unemployed. Now if Ludhiana civic body tries to bring another private company for door to door collection, we will protest for our rights again,” said Chanaliya.
Status of major projects for Solid Waste Management in Ludhiana
– 37 Portable Compactor Transfer Stations: 8 installed under LIT; 22 pending under Smart City, 6 under LIT & 1 under GLADA
– 18 Material Recovery Facilities: 11 constructed, rest pending
– 570 green belts/parks out of 922 covered under on-site composting, rest pending
– E&Y consultant hired through NICSI to prepare new DPR for Integrated Solid Waste Management project. A team of five from E&Y deployed in Ludhiana, to submit DPR for remediation of 8 lakh MT legacy waste
– Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste treatment plant: Approved under Smart City, site finalized at Dhandhari, work yet to start
– Bioremediation of 5 lakh MT legacy waste under Smart City: Lowest bidder selected, pending for final approval by committee of chief engineers
– Purchase of 350 e-rickshaw to strengthen collection: First lot of 20 rickshaws received, remaining expected before July 15, 2022
– Purchase of 20 compartmentalized tippers: Selected bidder did not respond, work order cancelled, re-tender pending
– Supply of 3 backhoe loaders, 8 dumpers: DPR approved under Smart City but work not started
– Sweeping of roads: 5543 safai sewaks deployed by MC for sweeping roads, 01 mechanical sweeping machine works at night, 4 more machines being purchased
(Source: MC Ludhiana & CAG report, 2021)
