Over the last 10 years, there has been a gradual change in the system of waste collection in Bengaluru leading up to the 2017 decision of the city corporation, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), to make segregation of waste a mandatory practice in the city.
The dry waste collection which was once left to hundreds of unorganised solitary ragpickers, who had little dignity of labour, has been transformed into a well-organised system in many parts of the city through the door-to-door collection and dry waste centres – operated by waste collectors themselves.
One of the central figures behind the transformation is a 58-year-old activist who once fought for the rights of women affected by domestic and criminal violence in the United States and was presented a certificate of honour by former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Nalini Shekar and the organisation she co-founded called Hasiru Dala (Green Force) have played a key role in the transformation of the waste collection system in Bengaluru by creating solid waste collection centres and getting city administrators to realise that it is possible to keep Bengaluru clean through an effective waste management system.
Long before waste segregation became a norm in the city, Nalini Shekar and Hasiru Dala created the first dry waste collection centre in Bengaluru in 2011 and brought waste-pickers into the management of the centre.
The effectiveness of a door-to-door collection system of segregated waste with dry waste collection centres in each ward being its epicentres received national recognition when the concept featured among the best practices in the Swachh Bharat Mission’s guidelines.
A study in 2011 by Hasiru Dala showed informal waste-pickers saved the city of Bengaluru nearly Rs 84 crore per annum in waste collection and transportation and prevented about 38.32 crore metric tonnes (MT) of waste from reaching garbage landfills around the city.
Across Karnataka, Hasiru Dala has organised 26,000 waste-pickers in 18 cities and 64 villages to implement a solid waste management system. “People who were just going out on the streets with bags to collect solid waste are employing anywhere between five to 20 people at waste collection centres. It is a big thing to create jobs,” says Shekhar about her efforts to transform waste management and the lives of waste-pickers in the city.
“The journey has been fantastic. From people on the street, waste-pickers have gone on to become entrepreneurs – many are paying ESI remuneration to their workers, and some are paying PF and filing income tax returns. The question is whether we can continue this system,” she says.
Under Shekar’s initiative, the door-to-door collection of dry waste was started on a pilot basis in 2017 in Bengaluru and was expected to be implemented throughout the city by 2020. However, the system is active in only around 39 of 69 wards where Hasiru Dala operates the dry waste collection system and a few others where residents have taken the initiative.
“Wherever citizens are active and there are NGOs, it is working but that is not the way it should be. It is citizen-driven at present and the city has not taken ownership of it. The lack of governance and leadership is a key issue dragging the city down,” Shekar says.
“We have been given 69 wards. Unfortunately, we are not able to do door-to-door collection because people are not getting paid. In 39 wards, we continue to do door-to-door collections. We are working in almost 30 per cent of the city,” she says.
One of the reasons Bengaluru has slipped to 43rd from 28th in the Swachh Survekshan 2022 rankings for 48 Indian cities with more than 10 lakh population is a leadership and governance issue for the city.
“There are a couple of problems that are resulting in low rankings for Bengaluru. One is that our documentation is not up to the mark and even though a lot of cities have come and learned our model and gone, the issue is one of governance. They have not been able to implement the waste segregation system across the city,” Shekar says.
“implementation of the policy in the city has seen limited success, because of poor governance, inconsistent and unscientific implementation measures,” she adds.
One of the major concerns that Nalini Shekar and Hasiru Dala have at present is a proposal made by the Karnataka government to hand over the waste management system to a single contractor and to do away with the system of separate collection of wet and dry waste. There are also concerns over dry waste collection centres being unpaid by the BBMP for 18 months.
The move by the government which has resulted in a request for proposal (RFP) being issued on September 30 has the potential to “dismantle the existing system of solid waste management in Bengaluru”, Shekar says.
“The apprehension is that they have got in one contractor, which is okay, but two different vehicles should be used for the collection of two different types of waste material. The collection of dry waste cannot be on every day. If you have everyday dry waste collection, nobody is likely to keep their dry waste clean. Right now, we get dry waste in a more clean form than we used to do earlier. Containers and milk packets are washed,” she says.
“We feel that having daily collections of wet and dry waste will also result in the system of segregation of waste coming down,” she adds.
“We are concerned because they have said that only 25 per cent of the solid waste will be given to dry waste collection centres. They are also changing the system of collection. It is not a two-day collection and all these things are very difficult,” Shekar says.
“The control of dry waste centres should be with waste-pickers as written in the BBMP bye-laws since this serves as a system of checking on waste collection. If dry waste does not come to the centre, we can report back on what kind of work has been done by the contractor. There would be a system of accountability,” Shekar says.
In a petition addressed to Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai on change.org, workers of waste collection centres in Bengaluru associated with Hasiru Dala have called for the scrapping of the proposal for changes in the waste management system in Bengaluru.
“The RFP should be scrapped and a fresh one issued taking into account all of the on-ground conditions and good practices that have been effective. All (100 per cent) dry waste (inorganic waste) should come to dry waste collection Centres (DWCCs), the statement in the RFP that only 25 per cent of dry waste will be dropped to DWCCs should be withdrawn immediately,” says the petition.
