What rubbish is this?

Heaps of garbage and trash have become a way of life in India

For the last few weeks, I have had one thing on my mind: garbage. I mean, pure trash. Why, you may ask. Have I nothing better to think about?

Quite frankly, no. One, I went on a drive out of the National Capital Region and as you get out of the city, one cannot help but notice the deterioration in the sanitary conditions as one makes one’s way through small towns in — ahem, charming — Uttar Pradesh. What is it with this state and its squalor levels? Along the highways, especially as you go through small towns like Moradabad, Najibabad, Khatauli, Muzzafarnagar, Bazpur — the list is endless — the garbage accompanies you all the way. At some places, the heaps are gargantuan and merit a brief stop to gaze with awe.

Do the citizens of UP love surrounding themselves with trash? It’s not uncommon to see families on the side of the roads lunching cheerfully at dhabas right next to a huge heap of filth and flies. Or does the state government have some particular affinity to it? Could there be, for instance, some state government-led incentives on offer to create bigger and more dramatic heaps? You could be forgiven for thinking so.

Since this isn’t the first time I find myself on this route, I can tell you matters come to a head during monsoons and just after the rains when the sides of smaller roads are like dirty drains and heaps of trash sticks to the muddy side banks. I believe it gets a lot worse in eastern UP — one of the most backward parts — an area I haven’t had the privilege of visiting as yet.

Many Uttarakhand towns come a close second to the UP ones. I stopped on the way in one of these towns — en route to Ramgarh — to stock up and buy some fruits and vegetables that looked fresh and alluring on my last trip. And then I beat a hasty retreat when I walked in to the lanes leading to the vendors to see them filled with plastic bags, peels, some small dead animals, dung and God knows what else. Needless to say, I decided to delay the purchases — the trash surrounding the area was enough to put you off fruits and vegetables for life.

The drive was one. Then, I was working on a story on Hasiru Dala, an initiative in Bengaluru that is trying to help clean up the city. For the story I ended up going through one report on sustainable solid waste management in India or the lack of it rather, and all its possible consequences (anybody into nightmares should read this one; please write to me for the link). The report illustrates the sheer size of the problem, explains how little is being done to resolve it and how much trouble that could land us all in.

And then if that wasn’t enough, for another piece that is yet to appear, I found myself with a British lady — she heads an organisation called Waste Warriors — who has been so deeply affected by India’s squalor that she has given up her life in England and is living in Uttarakhand to try and clean up our garbage! I don’t know what others think of this but I was quite embarrassed that someone from outside the country needs to come and do this for us. So these are the three main reasons why I have had garbage on my mind.

Now for some bad and then some good news (I like happy endings).The bad news is that the government — as with a whole host of other government provided services including law and order — is failing miserably at its job. The municipal authorities in many states seem to have thrown up their hands in despair. Forget segregation, even collection has become quite a challenge. Even states like Kerala — earlier considered very clean — have succumbed to an extent. I know Swachh Bharat mission is underway — it’s building toilets I know — but I am not clear if and what they are doing about garbage and solid waste management. Whatever they are doing, they need to do a lot harder.

The happy news is that many private individuals — entrepreneurs, fed-up citizens, foreigners (like the lady I met) and just people like you and me — have jumped in and are getting their own hands dirty to rid India of these dumps and clean up to some extent. Some are doing it through the NGO type of route and others are trying to convert it into a business opportunity. The driver for all however remains the same: to leave behind a cleaner India for the future generation.