A summer with Baber “The great”

Tags

india, informal sector, organic waste, Pune, sanitary waste, slums, waste management

Trrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, went the alarm clock! It was 5 am on a Monday morning. Abdulla sloppily pulled himself out of the bed and got ready for what was going to be his first day on field. After a swift tuk-tuk ride in the morning breeze of Pune, a city of 7 million about 150 Km from the financial capital of India, Mumbai, he was dropped in front of Kasturba slum; which may well have been named after Kasturba Gandhi – wife of the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi. The research project that Abdulla intended to mobilise could well be named – the Kasturba experiment. At the slum, Abdulla met his counterparts, Baber the great, a waste picker and Sangeeta a NGO’s (named “SWaCH”) personnel helping him with the research’s mobilisation. Kasturba has over 400 households and a densely packed population of 2222. It was developed in an unorganised fashion with curvy small lanes and inhabitants representing the lower economic strata of Pune.

Figure 1: Baber sorting waste midst the vectors and animals

With the aid of a green trolley and several buckets (for where trolley couldn’t go) provided by the government, Baber the great alongside Abdulla and Sangeeta started collecting waste at 6 am. They knocked from door to door, requesting waste and other relevant data. Some responded in haste while others had a sleepy confused faced on why a foreign looking guy cared about their waste! This went on for 10 hours with breaks at the local “chai wala” (tea shop) with tea and biscuits as breakfast, lunch and snacks of the day, accompanied by the adorable heroic stories of the work of Baber the great and Sangeeta. The collected waste was taken behind the slum to a transfer bin setup on vacant land.

Here, amidst the smell of the rotting waste infested with rodents, insects and animals (see fig 1), the Trio put on their gloves and masks and sorted the waste into more than 40 different categories; most, such as cardboard and dense plastic, were ones that Baber previously did sort into. Food remains (organic waste) and diapers (sanitary waste) were not previously sorted by Baber and were added as part of the experiment. Most of the dry waste consisting of items such as newspaper and clothes were then entrepreneurially sold off for some income by Baber, and the rest discarded into the transfer bin.

This research of Abdulla, was entirely funded by Climate-KIC (mobility program) and was done in collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of technology (MIT) and SWaCH Coop (a local NGO). Abdulla wanted to study the “Impact of the Informal Sector on the waste management system of Pune – India”. Where, Informal Sector (IS) in simple words refers to the waste pickers (WP’s) and other personnel working in an unorganised manner and often illegally. Pune however, is the first city in India to productively legalise the informal sector, leading to several benefits such as increased recycling.

The research was two folds –

1- The economic impact: The organic waste (60%) collected in Pune is disposed off without extracting much value from it. Abdulla’s experiment wanted to accurately estimate the percentage of this stream in 4 different economic categories. Therefore justifying the economic benefit (waste to energy, fuel cost for sorting machines, etc.) that can be extracted feasibly by using the local resource at hand, W.P’s such as Baber, to sort this waste. At this stage, waste can be relatively effortlessly sorted as it is not mixed thoroughly with other waste. This also further retains the value of dry waste by limiting its contamination with wet waste. Moreover, all ready being there, W.P’s can also be used to separate hazardous sanitary waste limiting its impact on the environment. Such finite resource extraction and damage minimisation has not been practiced before and if done, provides an entrepreneurial opportunity to the millions of W.P’s around the world – to collect more waste of a better quality (less contaminated = better prices, wet and sanitary waste to sell/get paid for extracting by government) and bargain for a better earning.

Figure 2: WP quality of life – Delhi vs Pune

2- Social Impact: The OECD better life index was adapted and inventively used for the first time to map the quality of life of the W.P’s and the relevant stakeholders such as NGO workers, residents of Pune etc. in waste management sector (WMS). This clearly showed the betterment of life for the W.P’s and the stakeholders; justifying the legalisation of the informal sector. Furthermore, the implementation of the recommendations of the study (as discussed above) would allow for a better environment (increased hygiene) and a better economy (resource recovery, distribution of wealth) for the masses.

Coming back to the story – What I had to do during my stay at Pune was for merely 70 days. However, Baber has been doing this all his life and will probably do so forever. Before the legalization of the informal sector, Baber was looked down upon the society for picking up the waste we produce. He was mistreated and harassed regularly and wasn’t even paid for his work. The only source of income was the collected material they could sell. Now, after the legalization of the informal sector, Baber in addition to his sales, gets paid 1 INR per day per household and is provided with basic facilities such as buckets and gloves. Other stakeholders too are better off as the results showed. This innovative study (due to be published) firstly showcases the value and impact of the work Baber does and further suggests improvements, which if implemented, have the potential to spur entrepreneurship benefitting Baber and the community; socially and economically while bettering the environment. Most importantly however, this research was not aimed to only benefit a certain heroic Baber the great or the bold and accepting people of Pune, it is rather applicable and envisioned to benefit the 2 million Baber’s the great (WP’s) and the several other Pune’s (cities) all over India and further on, all around the world.

Figure 3: Abdulla in the slum

Abdulla’s story about the Waste Pickers in Pune’s slum is a story of thousands of slums and WP’s all over the world. The Kasturba Experiment can show the way to extract multiple resources by the use of innovative structured processes and achieve improved economic benefit for the WP’s, the municipality and the society at large. Abdulla’s story maybe about the life of a WP, Baber the great, but the social and economic impact it can achieve can go a long way in the effective management of waste that has strong ties with our environment and the future of our planet.

“Waste is merely a resource in disguise, let it then be respected, handled and valued as is best for ourselves and our planet”

Check out the video my friend Darren captured of a daily journey with SWaCH here: http://vimeo.com/99706262

This post is in a story style and for the purpose of awareness. In case you need a more tech/research view of the subject, or would would like to know the full results, feel free to get in touch.

Special thanks to –

Prof. Sue Grimes: http://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/s.grimes

Rachel Perlman: http://tatacenter.mit.edu/tata2014b/portfolio/rachel-perlman/

Kate Mytty: http://web.mit.edu/mitpsc/whoweare/staff/mytty.html

Darren Coleman: http://vimeo.com/99706262

Climate-KIC: http://www.climate-kic.org/

SWaCH: http://www.swachcoop.com/

And everyone else who was a part of this project.

Love is in the air!

Its February and Valentines day is right around the corner. Needless to say, Love is in the air! Or is it? Well, for sure love is in the air, and was in the air on the 17th of December, 3rd of September, the 25th of May and every other day alike. February and valentines day being around the corner has surely not somehow increased the concentration of love in the air. Love, actually, has been lingering all along and it has rather been the lacking ability of ours to sniff it out of the air. What exactly is Love? As per Oxford dictionary Love is ” a strong feeling of affection” or “a great interest and pleasure in something“. Understanding the definition, it can safely be concluded that yes Love has been with us through out. Weather in the form of affection towards our parents or as great interest in ones hobbies. However, what I want to highlight from the above argument is our inability to sniff it out of the air into our actions unless on certain days, National, Valentines, Mother and all sorts of made ups. 

Celebrating these “days” is not an issue. Its a great idea to show some extra affection towards someone or something on these days. But the problem creeps in, when people replace the love that should exist between people through out the year by just a day! If anything the making of these days in some manner is in fact killing the abundant amounts of it that should be there.This absence of Love results in the presence of hatred, envy, apathy, misery and all else that is not to be given place in ones heart. Emotions such as the above further lay on into greed, killing, arrogance and many others which again should not be given the space. Conversely, some may argue, love is not always good. For example in the case when people start loving things of their own to an extent where there is no love for anything that is not beneficial for themselves. The problem here is not too much love for something/someone, rather for what they get in return.

For me, the definition of Love in Oxford dictionary is incomplete. Love to me is a feeling of affection, kindness and humbleness towards something or someone without an expectancy of return. In my religion, Islam, prophet Muhammed (Peace Be Upon Him-pbuh) stated, “love for your brother what you love for yourself” (Al-Bukhari). The beauty of this staement lies in the word brother which is being used as a metaphor for every one. These words are also correlated to the golden rule which is “One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself”. I believe if only we were able to accomplish a percentage of what is asked in this statement, the world would have been a much better place.

In my understanding there are three different parties that are to be loved:

1. Family and Friends: From the day I was born if anything I have given my parents an abundance of stress, pain and hardship. Just imagine the effort it takes for a mom to get up everyday, for 12 years at 6 AM to  make their child ready and steady for a great day at school to become the greatest man/women. How about our fathers who work day in and day out just so that they can provide us with the expensive Faber-Castle color pencils or the flying helicopter toy just because the cool kid in the class has that. These people who have done all that can be done to make their child happy and at many a times are left in misery and loneliness when old. The excuse behind this unjust behavior “No time”! If anything your time would have been over a long time ago mate if it weren’t for your the love of your parents. In the Qur’an Allah says “Say not to them uff (a word of disrespect), nor shout at them but address them in terms of honor. And lower unto them the wing of submission and humility through mercy, and say: “My Lord! Bestow on them Your Mercy as they did bring me up when I was small”. The word used here is “uff” which is the lowest form of disrespect and even that is completely unacceptable. A day or two simply does not do justice to their efforts and one should actively look to show their affection to their parents. What about your siblings who have taken every effort to sneak up on you and complain of your mischeive to your parents? Ok, maybe that’s not love worthy! How about the time when your elder sister/brother gave you her chocolate just because you dropped yours on the floor? No matter how much you have fought, one thing is for certain, whenever you have needed them they have been there giving you all the love and support you want! Friends, the kind of stuff we do with these people is just tremendous! Cheating in exams, bunking school, covering each others back in fights and what not. These guys too are worthy of some serious love for their involvement in all our craziness.
   
2. The Poor & the strangers: Just because you don’t know the person sitting across on the bus doesn’t mean you can muscle your way past them when getting of the bus. As I said, Love should be unconditional, with family & friends there are enough reasons to love them back but the poor and the stranger, the only way there day can be bettered is maybe by you giving them a smile or a compliment “bro, i like your shows”, trust me it always works. Think about the poor , the orphans they have no one to love or be loved by. The chances that they will come in some use of yours for your donated duvet on a cold winters night are minimal but one thing that is certain is the blissfulness you will feel when going to bed that night. Weather you believe in the hereafter or not “Love for your brother what you love for yourself and threat others the way you want to be treated”  and trust me you will feel a better person.
   
3. The world around you: Air, Water, Wind, Earth, the trees and all there is around you of the nature, Love it! For if there were no rivers, you would die thirsty, for if there were no sun, you would die with cold and for if there were no animals, you would die Hungry. These elements are a blessing from Allah to us, they belong to the creator and are not anyone’s personal property. Weather you are a believer or not, you have no right whatsoever to abuse any of these things. I am pretty sure, loving the hot water you get every morning for shower or the sunlight you soak every afternoon will not be being unsustainable towards the amount of love in the air cause you know what, Love unlike anything else in the world is infinite.

There is plentiful of Love in the air through out the year, not only on valentines day or whatever. I believe there is enough hate and misery all around, if there is anything that is lacking, its love. Do yourself a favor, stop being negative, stop being a hater, stop judging someone because they have a different color or a different religion or different opinion. Its time we look at the similarities, the things we have in common,  two eyes or two hands or one nose which we can efficiently utilize to sniff the love out of the air and give it to each other. Love is peace. Love is just. Love is happiness.

To prove my point i.e. love is not for a day or two, over the next 10 days, until February the 20th, I will do something “lovely” and will post a picture or update my status on what I did and how it made a difference when I went to bed each of these nights. I highly recommend that you join me or do your own ten day journey to spread the love.

7 suggestions on how to spread the love.

1. Call your mum/dad/sis/bro just to tell them “I Love you” !
   
2. Sponsor an Orphans food for the day.
   
3. Next time you visit a coffee shop, order two and give the other to the person behind you in the line.
   
4. When you see your friend tomorrow, hug them and tell them you love them unconditionally.
   
5. When buying a snickers, grab two and give the other to the first beggar you see on the road with “hope this makes your day a bit better” without them asking for it.
   
6. The dying plant in your garden, go water it and put some extra fertilizer as a thank you for all the oxygen it has given you.
   
7. On your way to university/work, say hi to the bus driver/ tube attendant and wish them a good day.

These are just a few suggestions, but be innovative, don’t look for for opportunities, create them to spread the love. Remember love is in the air and it is infinite!

Any comments and suggestion appreciated. 🙂

a great interest and pleasure in something