Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat
When i along with some friends was heading for Indore’s Sarafa Bazar at midnight of November 20th recently , I was imagining that the food street would be full of trash , plastic bottles , disposable plates etc. After getting down from the car, we started walking on the food street. I was completely shocked to see such a neat and clean food street. Getting overwhelmed what I was observing , I quickly took out my cell phone and took photos and videos of neat and clean food joints , makeshift dhabas , ice-cream push carts located on the 1 km long clean food street. I had never ever seen such a clean food street in the country. Sarafa Bazar means gold market in hindi / urdu. This market gets closed by 8 to 9 pm everyday and after 9pm , it turns into a food street until 2 am or even until 3 am. The street is full of life , hustle and bustle. In March 2016 I had been to this place, but it was not at all clean. Within 15 to 20 months Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) has completely revolutionized its sanitation and waste management system and change is quite visible on the ground. People who are very much part of this change are fully cooperating with the corporation. I did not see people littering or spitting. Dustbins have been kept inside public transport and private cars. Indorians got a moral boost when Indore city was declared Indian’s cleanest city during 2017 SwachhSurvekeshan (Sanitation Survey) early this year . People of Indore now want to protect this honour and that is why they leave no stone unturned to ensure Indore is again declared Indian’s cleanest city in 2018 Swachh Survekeshan……
A behavioral change ?
I have been closely watching developments in Indore vis a viswaste management and sanitation. In February 2016 I had sent a group of Kashmiri boys to Indore to work with BASIX Municipal Waste Ventures. Basix is social enterprise that has been active in development sector from last 26 years. It has done commendable work on Micro Finance , Skill Development , Financial Inclusion etc. In 2012 BASIX created a separate waste management company and from last 3 years BASIX is closely working with Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC). Volunteers of this social enterprise go door to door and make people aware how to segregate the waste. In addition to it IMC staff is also trained on waste managing skills .The Safai Mitras and vehicle goes house to house and collects the waste which is put inside in two specially designed chambers of the vehicle. The segregated waste is then taken to Trenching Ground where it is processed. People have given lot of support to this initiative and without the behavioral change , what all we see in Indore today would not have been possible. Earlier I was very much pessimist about sanitation , waste management and source segregation of waste , but after visiting Indore last year and few weeks back , I am of firm belief that we can replicate this model in other cities of India especially Jammu & Kashmir. For achieving this ,municipal authorities need not to focus on budget , funding or machines , but their focus should be on creating Information Education and Communication Programmes (IEC). The IEC activities alone cannot bring the change andthis has to be followed by providing such facilities like door to door collection of segregated garbage , its transportation on same day and its further processing.
Municipalities have to ensure that only 10 to 20 percent and of waste is taken to landfill site and rest 80 to 90 % should be processed. From last 2 years Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) has launched a massive IEC activity campaign across 85 wards of the city. In-spite of the fact that Indore was declared as most clean city in country , the IEC activities haven’t stopped. Changing the centuries old mindset will take many years for reformation. It needs will power and political acumen which has been exhibited by Mayor of Indore MaliniSingh Gaur and Commissioner IMC Manish Singh. For executing all the IEC work and ensuring door to door garbage collection in a segregated manner, ShrigopalJagtap who is Chief Operating Officer (COO) of BASIX Municipal Waste Ventures has been working day and night with IMC team especially Additional Commissioner Rohan Saxena and Assad Warsi (Consultant IMC). All are stake holders are working like a family and that is the reason , things are moving smoothly in Indore.
Conclusion :
Every now and then people call Municipal Corporation officials to install dustbins , dumpers in different cities particularly Srinagar / Jammu cities. Authorities also focus on buying more and more trash bins , garbage dumping vessels etc. But the situation is totally opposite to it in Indore. The Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) is instead removing the big trash bins / dustbins. They have ensured 100 % door to door collection of waste from residential colonies and commercial establishments and thus the need of dustbins is becoming obsolete in Indore city. More than 1500 large size trash bins all over the city have been removed during last 9 months and while visiting Sewerage Treatment Plant (STP) of Indore I found dozens of these huge garbage bins dumped in an open plot located just behind the STP’s administrative block. Commissioner IMC Manish Singh believes that more and more garbage bins invite more and more stray animals , dogs and rag pickers. This creates mess and foul smell emits from the waste collection points. As the dustbins are removed the IMC sanitation staff and NGO’s associated with IEC work become more active and this way they ensure garbage is lifted on daily basis in a segregated manner.
Founder of BASIX Vijay Majahan (VM) very rightly calls Indore India’s Anand of Swachhta (Sanitation). In a meeting at Indore recently which was attended by Mayor of IMC , J&K CM’s Advisor (Infrastructure) Pradeep Singh, Commissioner IMC Manish Singh, Commissioner JMC Ramesh Kumar, Commissioner SMC Riyaz Ahmad Waniand Director Urban Local Bodies KashmirManzoor Ahmad, V M said that Anand led India towards White Revolutionmany decades back and Indore has a potential to lead the country for another revolution ie theWaste Management Revolution. Mahajan suggested Mayor Malini Singh Gaur and Commissioner Manish Singh to start a waste management center in Indore where young professionals , municipal officials and NGO s associated with this work can come and learn the art of creating wealth from waste.As assured by Commissioner IMC , the center will start working very soon and by January 2018 first batch of young professional might go to Indore for a two weeks training on Solid Waste Management .
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