We are pleased that waste management—and in particular, the important roles that informal waste workers play in municipal solid waste management—is receiving needed attention from India’s central ministries. However, we are supremely disappointed in the process by which this manual has been drafted.
I am writing this email on behalf of All India Kabadi Mazdoor Mahasangh(AIKMM). There has been a massive fire in Masoodpur in Vasant Kunj, New Delhi around 7:30 am on 25 April 2014, where waste recyclers live. Approximately 1000 huts (Jhuggi) were razed to the ground.
There is urgent need to assess the measures that the government has taken over the past decade to improve waste management in the country. Millions of dollars have been spent in large scale, centralised technochratic solutions with little impact or improvement in levels of recycling. The Draft MSW Rules, 2013, do nothing to reform the situation. Instead, they seek to continue with the status quo and only increase the already thriving presence of waste to energy plants across the country. Is this the answer to our waste management woes? A consultation of concerned stakeholders seeks to address this question.
Working very hard in most unfavorable and hazardous conditions, they are the sole player in reducing carbon emission by saving remarkable amount of energy and ensuring recycling and reuse of major portion of the garbage. Their role is not only to serve the environment they are also playing key role to support the executing bodies in saving a huge part of revenue and reducing the carbon emission. Sign the petition here.
In recognition of International Labour Day, or May Day, AIKMM and its associate organization NALR hosted a program to promote solidarity amongst the waste collectors in northeast Delhi.
In March of this year, Kabad Se Jugad, a women’s cooperative that makes arts and crafts out of recyclable materials launched in the Seemapuri neighborhood of New Delhi. Before forming the cooperative, members survived by collecting waste from the surrounding neighborhoods. In partnership with New York-based artist, Rolando Politi, also known as Recycle and Pray, these waste pickers are transforming these materials into objects and art, “relying on inspiration and creativity (in Hindi: jugad) to guide our production process” and “bringing our talent of improvising from waste to the wider world.”
