Garbage - Disposal and Clearing!

The only contribution many of us have made to this city we live in is the garbage we dispose. Like most cities, the majority of us want to live clean looking, well maintained lives and want all the muck we create to be cleared by someone else and self-righteously maintain our payment of taxes as our contribution. But, the issue is beyond that.

1. Can we minimize the garbage we create in our homes, offices, social gatherings, etc.?

2. Can we spend time to do some responsible segregation /disposal / recycling / reuse?

The following mail from Mr. Narayanan (editor, paadam mangazine) highlights one  important related  issue for all of us to be aware of.  To me the issue of the bad treatment of the sewage cleaning personnel by the Corporation is not independent of our own understanding of  garbage and practices around its disposal.

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5^th November 2009.

Chairman & Managing Director                                                              
Chennai Metro water Supply and Sewerage Board
Chindadripet, Chennai – 600 002.                                                                    

Kind Attn: Mr.Siv Das Meena.

Ref: Madras High Court order dt  5^th August 2009 against Contempt petition No.352 of 2009

Dear Sir,

Greetings.

There is a strong possibility that you may consider the content of this letter and its attachment as 'a cheap Publicity stunt'and you have every right and liberty to think so.

However, I consider it as a method  or effort to draw the attention of yourselves, the Government, the politicians and indifferent public. I don’t have the wherewithal to organize rallies or marches or go to the beach to start fasting and am only an ordinary activist, if I can call so.  Hence this method. 

Yes. Attached please find  photographs of me holding in both my hands, half a dozen each, of ‘faeces lubricated sanitary napkins, condoms’ that I could manage to dish out of ‘scores of the same’ which were in the slush of  blocked manhole opposite to Loyola College, Nungambakkam today (5-11-2009).

Just this afternoon, as I was passing by, I could see that your department had, as usual sent a truck with a Jetroding machine and a couple of 'temporary staff' plus a crowbar 'minus' ofcourse soap, gloves, etc to clean up an overflowing sewer line.

The job of removing sanitary napkins, condoms, throw away plastics, clothe,debris, broken liquor bottles, mutton wastes, food wastes, vegetable wastes etc, etc., from sewer manholes has become such a permanent job for Sewerage workers on a daily basis in so many parts of our city and other towns. When this is so, why is the department keeping such temporary workers for daily wages of Rs.110 per day minus all benefits,  for such  permanent jobs, which is one of the most basic violation of the labour laws of the country.

I could see that except for the Jetroding machine, the crowbar and a pair of slippers, the temporary worker was not given any protective gear. After a half-hearted job at removing the blockage using the machine, he closed the lid of the manhole and heaped all the slush & debris mainly consisting of more than two dozens of sanitary napkins and condoms (the culprits for the sewer overflow) removed from the blockage, back on the manhole itself, with his bare hands.

If we employ only a temporary worker with no training for just Rs.110 per day as daily wages with neither social security nor protective gear, we will only get such a sloppy and substandard work.

When I enquired with him about why he is not using a soap (he is entitled to) to wash his hands and body parts of the stink and deadly virus that he was in touch with via the sludge, he replied that he doesn’t even know that he is eligible for a ration of soap from the department.  

I still managed to scoop out atleast 6 no.s each of used condoms and sanitary napkins with my bare hands to get myself photographed. When I returned home, the stench refused to go off my hands and finger nails, despite using half of an expensive soap and scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing.

As I ate my lunch  with my hands (despite the availability of spoon), I could ‘only’ empathize with the municipal workers of our country, how they continue to eat their lunch every day after ‘such calls of duty from our nation’.

As I type out this letter, 'the stink of faeces, condoms and napkins of men and women unknown to me' refuses to go out of my hands. I keep sniffing my finger nails to see if the stink is vanishing and may be, it will go in a day or two. But the stink of official apathy and public indifference will permanently stay in our citizenry unless some of us put our act together.

Only when we go, physically verify and photograph what causes frequent sewerage overflows and makes urban sanitation a nightmare in our country, we realize the seriousness of it all.

Hence, I once again urge you, in your capacity as the Chairman, to immediately convene the special committee setup by the honourable High court so that we can attempt to make our cities and towns a better place to live in, attempt to sensitise the citizens of the crime that they are indulging, the crime of indifference, the crime of flush and forget, the crime of letting  our Dalit brothers and migrant labourers eke out a living of manual scavenging or similar such 'reserved'occupations which keeps their lives and that of their families miserable and stinking throughout their lifetime.

Only the other day, I was witness to a migrant mother (employed by the contractor) inside what you would call (of course) the manhole of the Storm water drain. Her 2 year old child was playing dangerously outside the manhole on the platform.  For all practical purposes, the drain in which the mother was inside scooping out debris was an unofficial / unauthorised sewer line, a dust bin of plastic debris, broken beer bottles, with chicken waste thrown in as an add on. We conveniently call this a storm water drain. The Municipal Corporation and Metrowater Board, each think it is the other department's issue.

If we do not reverse the way, we the civil society and the Government manage urban sanitation in our state in the immediate future possible, we can only be fit to rename our department, the Department of Municipal Mis-administration and Sewerage Supply.

May I atleast now look forward to your initiative please.

Thank You and with Warm Regards,

Narayanan.A
Trustee- INFORSE IDL
Editor-PAADAM

One of the best Teachers from Chennai goes Global!!

Prof. Sultan Ismail is perhaps one of the best teachers in the country today, and perhaps the world. His conviction on what he teaches, the passion with which he communicates it, the effective use of every tool at his disposal to communicate and ability to do so with all sections and age groups in society has made him a much respected and looked up to teacher in the city.

That his short lectures appear on You Tube to be available to the rest of the world is only a matter of time. It is great to see him air his views on-line. please watch his videos, there is something to learn from every sentence of what he says.

two new insensitive initiatives...

Thank god, there is no Gandhi statue in the chennai corporation building, Mayor Subramanian and Commissioner Lakhani would have otherwise been embarrassed (if they could).

This morning news
1) Mayor inaugurates parking meters in North Mada Street, Mylapore
2) Corp. Commissioner distributes new plastic broom sticks to conservancy workers

The Mayor comes with a jewel of a reason for the parking meters, 'people at times are unhappy that the attendant in the parking areas don't issue receipt and now (what he didn't say: they will walk the required 200 mts to the machine, fish out the Rs. 5 coin from their wallets and promise not to park beyond an hour) they will get their receipts printed by the meter machine!'. Of course, we assume that those people want to actually pay the amount and if they over stay the duration, will renew it again!

The Mayor has to just peek around the corner to find the number of large cars that park on the narrow stretch on the main road near Luz signal out side the Mylapore railway station. These Honda Civics' and Toyoto Qualis' park there to pick up executives from the railway station to their homes or offices, but, don't want to take the trouble of paying the required amount at the station parking lot and prefer to hit the road as soon as possible. They are a menace to the vehicles just coming out of the Luz signal onto the narrow stretch. They want to replace the poor man with a machine.

Lokhani went a step further, he is replacing the traditional long handle broom (made of natural bamboo and coconut stalk material that is made in all probability by women in suburban villages) used by the conservancy staff, that costs Rs. 40/- with a plastic one that costs Rs.150/- (or equivalent of almost 4 traditional brooms) as he believes that it lasts longer. Ofcourse, the plastic one is manufactured by a industry. Lokhani says that the traditional 'mallaram' (long handle broom) lasts for just 15-20 days whereas the new one lasts longer (carefully omitting the detail of how much longer it lasts). That makes the traditional Mallaram charge Rs.2 per day of cleaning and assuming a conservancy staff cleans just 2 streets, that is Rs. 1 per day per street cleaning towards the material alone (a natural decomposable material that does not become a garbage problem eventually). A regular replacement will obviously provide more employment for those who make them (and invariably it is those who cannot leave their homes for various reasons who end up making these in the suburban villages), instead just one industry stands to gain.

Meanwhile, the other unconnected news in the city included a Gandhian talking about 'Mahatma Gandhi ideals for students' and an actor talking about the upholding tradition.

SUVs for School Drops!

Yesterday morning news papers carried two interesting stories. 

1) TATA launching the Land Rover in India (front page HINDU) and

2) If American's stopped using their SUVs, the poorest of the world can all have free electricity (TOI front page last item)

Interesting that the day the TATAs are launching this huge mean automobile, we also have this other story.

My worry is the number of people I see going to drop their children to school in the morning in SUVs and large vehicles that occpupy the road completely. 

I walk my daughter to her school most mornings and am surprised at the speed with which parent's want to dump their children in the school, the large cars of all shapes and sizes with just the kid and one parent zooms past at crazy speed, just to drop the child in the school gate and zoom past faster from there. Why do people use such large vehicles and waste of fuel to just drop a small child in the school? And what does the child get prepared for if it is hurried each morning even at this early age? This school has its own vehicles picking up children from all around, but, with the growth of the car usage, most parents seem to prefer dropping their child themselves. 

Every morning and afternoon, outside our office in Mylapore we see the near ritual spectacle of Vidya Mandir parents honking unendingly and occupying two thirds of the narrow Royapettah High Road to drop and pick up their children. The school authorities seem to not be in control of the situation, the lone police constable in the morning tries his best, but, in the afternoon he goes missing too and the traffic in the entire stretch is completely disrupted. The road rage caused by this ritual alone must cause several road skirmishes each day. I am sure this ritual is enacted in a few thousand places across the city twice a day.

I don't know whether any NGO or network has even thought about this as an issue, but, the problem of how to handle the school commuters traffic twice a day needs to be addressed urgently if this city (and many others I am sure) will have to retain any sanity with TATAs crowding us with more cars in all sizes for all people later this year.

P.S.: Few days back our transport minister had proclaimed rather proudly in the Assembly that Chennai has the maximum number of two wheelers in the country, about 90 lakh registered two wheelers.

A Movie Worth Watching - Tomorrow in Chennai

I have constantly blogged on the ills of GM Food, some time back maverick film maker Mahesh Bhatt had made a movie on the GM issue in India called, 'Poison in the Platter'. This film is being screened by reStore tomorrow in Chennai. Do go watch this movie and to get to know more about the world (of our food) according to many corporates who want to change our food habits.


Following is the invitation.
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reStore&
The Madras Terrace House

invite you to a screening of

"Poison on the Platter"
a documentary by  renowned filmmaker & social activist Mahesh Bhatt.
The film talks about the adverse impact of Genetically Modified foods on health and environment

followed by a talk & discussion with
Mr. Jaishankar, Organic Farmer

on Wednesday, 17th June
at 7 pm at The Madras Terrace HouseJaishankar is an IT maverick (worked with CTS for many years) turned organic farmer.
His influences include Fukuoka, Daniel Quinn's Ishmael, Nammalvar, Gomathinayagam and others. He is a popular back-to-the-lander with amazing hands on experience and understanding of (organic) farming.
For more information on his farm, please go to: http://www.swayambhufarm.com/index.htm


reStore is a not-for-profit organization in Chennai that works to restore wellness, livelihoods for the poor and ecological balance. http://restore.org.in


MADRAS TERRACE HOUSE15, SRI PURAM, 2ND STREET, NEAR DECCAN PLAZA HOTEL, OFF R. K. SALAI,
ROYAPETTAH, CHENNAI 14
PH: +91 44 4503 8391
Email: themadrasterracehouse@gmail.com