Author: Gouri Agtey Athale
Publication: The Wall Street Journal
Date: November 27, 2012
URL: http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/TgOfOBTJvu0T1AGcRtLsLN/Pune-Newsletter--A-communitybased-cleanliness-drive.html

Deccan Gymkhana Parisar Samiti members in Pune have one agenda: clean up the locality working with the system

Who would have thought that busy professionals, doctors, lawyers, an economist, a former Indian Navy officer and others working from home would have the time to become civic activists, leading a cleanliness drive?
This 10-11 member core group of divergent people who constitute the Deccan Gymkhana Parisar Samiti (area committee) in Pune have one agenda: clean up the locality working with the system.

Although the area these residents cover is a mere 2-3 sq. km, not much when you consider that metropolitan Pune is spread over approximately 244 sq. km, they have worked out a system that can be replicated and even scaled up. They have taken ownership of their area since they, and not the civic body, live there so it is their responsibility, to ensure clean, garbage- and stray dog-free streets.

Economist Sumita Kale, a member of the core group, explained, “Residents of this area believe they own it. Well, actually some of them do own parts of it.”

The members of Deccan Gymkhana Parisar Samiti (DGPS), covering civic ward No. 36, come from among residents of Agarkar, Bhandarkar, Prabhat, Law College and Karve Roads, that 2-3 sq. km exclusive, up-market patch. The area takes its name from the Deccan Gymkhana, a prestigious club in that area. The locality is defined mainly as an upper crust, mainly professionals, predominantly Maharashtrian area where bungalows have made way for apartment blocks.

Being long-time residents, some are averse to change, while others believe cleaning up is the job of the civic authority, in this case the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).

Sushma Date, a paediatrician, said, “We have a website (www.dgpspune.com) and a Facebook page (only for residents of our ward) to spread awareness about PMC rules, information about segregation (of waste), different methods of composting wet waste, our work with dog sterilization, traffic updates, water related problems, etc. We try to motivate people to monitor their surroundings and work through the PMC system to fix their own problems. We provide back up support whenever necessary.”

The group has realized that they are small in number, perhaps irrelevant when it comes to electoral politics, but that has not held them back.

“We work with the PMC, within its system, liaising with the civic staff and we have found it works. Corporators of the area attend to our issues and so do civic officials and their staff. Our philosophy is to look after our locality’s problems ourselves and support the local civic Ward office. We insist on working with the system, understand their problems, cross-checking at every level,” Date and Kale said.

Yes, they agree that it helps the area is homogenous, comprising an almost uniform higher income and education bracket. But that has its own drawbacks: these highly individualistic people have strong opinions and don’t want to get involved in things outside their door. They pay their taxes and expect the civic body to do its work.

Apart from this, the slums in this area are small but upwardly mobile, therefore, amenable to working to keep the place clean. In fact, Sumita Kale pointed to the community spirit that works within the slum area.

“The residents of the (slum) off Karve Road function better as a community, with cleaner public toilets than the one on Fergusson College road,” she said, pointing to the smelly and offensive structure on that busy thoroughfare.

So, one of the challenges for the group is to build a community spirit among residents of the area. The other challenge is to overcome the communication gap between the tech-savvy younger group, the tech-challenged older people and the slumdwellers. Building communication with the older residents has been partially overcome through monthly meetings “on the benches of the Kamla Nehru Park”, Date said, a central location for residents.
Residents of this area have a tradition of social work, as older residents recalled the pioneering work done by a couple of women in Kanchan galli (lane) off the Law College road. Ramabai Bakhle, her daughter Tara Warrior, and neighbour Lata Shrikhande began working on garbage segregation, vermi-composting and garbage collection at the doorstep.

What began as an experiment by residents of Kanchan galli over 25 years ago is now an active policy for the PMC: segregation of garbage into dry and wet at home, doorstep collection of garbage by groups of PMC-authorized rag pickers which will eventually lead to removal of the unhygienic, ugly, overflowing garbage bins on roadsides.

That garbage should remain an issue in Pune exasperates everyone since this is one of the few cities which has the entire chain of downstream processing for garbage: briquette and compost making, bioenergy, shredders for garden waste, etc.

“There’s money to be made in wet garbage. Just look at the number of units using the garbage delivered free to their units by the PMC. This is bought by the very people who generate it! Why don’t these people make their own compost from the wet garbage they generate,” asked a resident.

This experiment, of mobilizing local residents of the DGPS, has had some notable successes. For instance, the illegal dumping of wet garbage by hotels and restaurants in nearby garbage bins was resisted, including a local outlet of a multinational fast food chain. Photographic evidence sent to the US headquarters brought relief to residents and passersby; the outlet stopped the activity.

But it is not all roses. “We cannot do anything about encroachments since the encroachers have political backing. We haven’t figured out how to deal with that issue,” Kale remarked. Or issues where politics and strong arm tactics work.

The other challenge is the constant fight for capacity: What may have been sufficient in terms of numbers of trucks to handle the city’s garbage 20 years ago is no longer enough and what is being ordered for now is not going to be enough to cater to the needs of a growing city by the time the equipment arrives.