Chhattisgarh's Ambikapur, a Swachh Bharat model

The town has mobilised community, given livelihood to women and turned waste into a resource

Dressed in green and orange saris, a group of women in Chhattisgarh go around town collecting waste, sorting it, and, in the process, making the small town of Ambikapur spotless. Called the Green Warriors, these women have become an unmistakable identity of the  city that is 400 km from the state capital and has been ranked the cleanest in India in the population category of less than 200,000.

The women, who come armed with masks, caps, gloves and shoes, are seen moving along the streets in rickshaws painted in green and red. Their work has set a precedent in the Swachh Bharat Mission by making the town of over 145,000 people waste-free, while also generating livelihood for its residents through waste management and recycling. 

The city’s Solid Liquid Resource Management (SLRM) method, the first to be adopted in the state, is exemplary in combating the menace of urban waste. But the mission to become and remain the cleanest still throws up numerous challenges.

Once collected, it is taken to the SLRM centre

It all began in 2015 at a review meeting where local civic body officials asked then district collector Ritu Sain for 20 acres of land for dumping the city’s garbage. Instead, Sain told them to find a mechanism to manage the waste. This plunged the entire administration into action. 

Inspired by an episode of the television show Satyamev Jayte and one of its guests, C Srinivasan, founder of an environment protection organisation called Indian Green Service, Ambikapur started a new project with women self-help groups. A thousand women were trained and 650 of them were selected for the job. Most of these women were from economically weaker sections and include several widows and divorcees. The 62 self-help groups that joined the project were federated into a society named “Swachh Ambikapur Mission Sahakari Samiti Maryadit”. This is the legal identity of the community structure. The society has entered into an agreement with Ambikapur Municipal Corporation that provides the legal mandate for the society to do the work of solid waste management.

It is then sorted into organic and inorganic waste

“During the opening of SLRM centres, we requested our chief guests to come either before 10 am or after 6 pm,” says an official associated with the project. The aim was to mobilise more people working in the service industry. The strategy worked and big gatherings were reported during the opening of the SLRM centres. The micro-level working made all stakeholders part of a seamless waste management chain —from residents to ragpickers, everyone has had their part to play in the process.

The launch, however, was not devoid of hiccups and reservations. Halkanya Das, one of the core members of the Khalpara SLRM centre, says that her parents were against her job and asked her to stay clear of the filth. Many others faced similar challenges. The members began carefully pitching kachra (waste) in casual conversations at home as a resource and not as waste. And rightly so, over 400 women working in 48 wards in the city are now converting waste into something valuable. 

A typical day at work begins early morning. Each group of 10 members covers about 300 houses. Women from a common locality are usually grouped together. Each group is assigned to one of the 18 SLRM centres closest to their locality. The natural leader in each centre is designated as a “core member”, who represents the group in the society (it is mandatory for the core members to be literate). The core members also do the basic book-keeping of their respective centres. There are supervisors in each centre who lead the teams that go on door-to-door rounds. Core members as well as supervisors are also active workers in the refuse collection and segregation work that makes the group egalitarian.

The inorganic waste is further segregated into 158 categories

Each group collects the waste, segregates it and deposits it at its respective SLRM centre. The work of collection is completed by noon, and then begins the hard part.

“The organic waste becomes compost while the inorganic waste is further segregated into 158 categories after cleaning (if required),” says Shashikala Sinha, president of the society. While there was initial hesitation and cooperation was difficult to get, residents gradually adopted the model and began keeping two dustbins — one for solid and other for liquid waste — that were provided free of cost by the administration. 

“The segregation at homes has been very useful for the members collecting the waste as the bicycle has been designed to store it in two separate compartments,” she adds. The federation has 100 manual and 34 e-rickshaws. 

“The state government provided a fund of Rs 10 crore to start the SLRMs and we are happy that the project has become a model,” says Amar Agrawal, Chhattisgarh’s urban development minister. The model would be implemented across the state and efforts are on to make the project, which is currently partly funded, self sustainable, he adds.

The special rickshaws with different compartments makes waste collection easy

Besides the user charges collected from households and commercial establishments, the federation earns through sale of composted, re-used and recycled materials. However, Sinha says the collection is “not enough to sustain” the project.

The federation collects Rs 8 lakh as user fee and Rs 4 lakh by selling scrap and other items every month. But the expense is close to Rs 21 lakh, says Sinha.  The municipal corporation is compensating the loss for now.

From the president to members, everyone gets an equal honorarium of Rs 5,000 a month. The earnings are likely to scale up once revenue increases.

The process now includes collecting 100 per cent user fee, which was earlier confined to 70 per cent. “The corporation has designed a master plan and will also make it mandatory to pay for cleaning septic tanks and other official work,” says a corporation official. The target is to collect Rs 18 lakh to Rs 20 lakh as user fee from the city that generates 45 metric tonnes of solid waste per day.

“The Corporation has also passed a resolution to impose a penalty of Rs 100 for throwing garbage at public places for the first time and Rs 500 for violating the norms for the second time,” the corporation official says. If a resident violates rules for the third time, stringent action will be taken under the prohibitory acts of Indian Penal Code. 

The members are also finding innovative ways to increase the revenue. “We are making powder from the orange rind collected in household waste and fruit stalls,” says Sangeeta Gupta, a core member. The powder can be used as phenyl and for washing utensils, she adds. The group plans to create awareness of its use in houses around the city.

The women are enjoying the work that has cut down the waste disposal fund of the city’s municipal corporation by almost 73 per cent, besides cleaning up the city. 

Despite the humiliation from family and friends, most women did not given up on the mission. People’s attitude has changed drastically since. As Das puts it: “No one recognised us earlier, but people respect us now.” 

Schools in the city recently pooled money to buy raincoats for the women who have become indispensable to its existence. The Green Warriors seem to be winning many hearts and battles.