The lofty goals and aspirations
of Swatch Bharath Abhiyaan in India are stuck in a quagmire of disoriented
publicity. A profligate publicity budget alone isn’t enough to cleanse the country.
While the intention and goal of the Clean India Mission are taintless, almost
holy – I mean - the mission to clean the Ganges, there is an urgently felt need
for policy initiatives to support the Clean India Mission.
Only one doubt nags me. The Union
Minister for water resources - in-charge of Cleaning Ganges Ms. Uma Bharathi –
controversial at the best of times - actually claimed in an interview to the
BBC that the incumbent NDA government will be able to cleanse the Ganges before
the 2019 Loksabha Elections! It smacked not just of extreme political opportunism
but betrayed the blissful ignoramus that she is! Or could it be her naiive
faith in an idolised and popular Prime Minister?
Alternative use for secondary
waste generated from say plastics is the biggest challenge. Standardisation is
needed for packaging ware for all goods and services. Protocols and standards
need to be imbibed from EU standards of waste management. Use of plastics need
to be reduced significantly but banning < 20 micron plastics alone is at
best a feeble attempt. Execution of the ban is the proverbial proof of the
pudding. We need not just alternative use for degenerate packaging ware but new
standardised packaging wares, tax incentives for manufacture of alternative
packaging ware, tax incentives for reuse of resources like bottles and glassware,
all aimed at reducing waste generation.
Think out of the box to come up
with biodegradable soluble detergents, drastically reduce toilet consumables so
that incinerable wastes are reduced correspondingly… aiming @ < 5 kilos of
incinerable toilet wastes per capita per annum in India alone. That’s a goal
that needs universal commitment among Indians. It needs support from the bureaucracy,
political class, civil society, media, citizens’ groups, industrialists, and a
sustainable timeline sans political opportunism at the hustings.
Policy support is needed for
reinventing uses for plastics, paper, bottles / glassware, packaging material as
well as biodegradable waste… all of which need to be segregated at source.
Composting plants generating mulch need buyers. Transport infrastructure, tax
infrastructure, tax initiatives are all needed for effective Solid Waste
Management.
Awareness in the population
should not be TV apologies to politicians, rather the need of the hour are crisp
Public Service Announcements that instruct people to segregate according to statutory
norms. Best practices evolved in neighbourhood apartment complexes or
residential colonies need to be analysed in the media through two way traffic
which can be ideally supported by the Internet and social media … that enables
decentralised stake holder participation in governance. It is an ideal fit for
modernity. Let us put this to practise instead of just making glib New Year
resolutions!
Urban planning of professional
international mettle is needed … something which altruistic or parochial nationalism
will undo. Urban planners must make efforts to incentivise manufacture of
biodegrable detergents or soluble effluents.
Composting pits management in the
neighbourhoods should be channelised and coordinated for collection as it makes
life easier for the hapless pourakarmikas or street sweepers of the municipal
bodies… a mandate for urban elected bodies and urban planners. Legislative
support to this effect is expeditiously called for. Political will needs to be
harnessed to channelise field experiences into policy initiatives that can be
exemplified and scaled up. Only then can
we stop the archaic landfill approach to solid waste management.
Malini Shankar
Malini Shankar is a photojournalist, radio broadcaster, author blogger and documentary filmmaker based in Bangalore India.
