Journal of Asian Public Policy

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Changing contours of solid waste management in

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Binti Singh

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Journal of Asian Public Policy, 5:3, 333-342, DOI: 10.1080/17516234.2012.731172

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Journal of Asian Public Policy
Vol. 5, No. 3, November 2012, 333–342

RESEARCH NOTE
Changing contours of solid waste management in India
Binti Singh*

Independent Researcher, Yokohama, Japan

The solid waste management (SWM) sector in contemporary urban India has witnessed
shifts in policy and practice in the wake of changing contours of urban governance
resonating between international and domestic trends. These changes are character-
ized by measures to reduce public expenditure and gradual offloading of essential
municipal services, increasing efficiency in service provision by privatization, decen-
tralization, introduction of user charges and developing new delivery systems through
greater involvement of non-state actors like community-based organizations and local
contractors. Historically, SWM remained a neglected area until the intervention of the
Supreme Court of India that resulted in the Municipal Solid Waste Management and
Handling Rules, 2000, under the Environment Protection Act, 1986. As a solution to
the inability of municipal authorities to handle conservancy operations, the Rules called
for involvement of actors like community-based organizations, private contractors and
nongovernment organizations (NGOs) in SWM functions. With findings from detailed
case studies of two community programmes in the SWM sector in Mumbai, namely the
Advanced Locality Management groups and the Slum Adoption Programme (SAP),
and several NGOs that are involved in this sector, this article argues that increasing
community participation, particularly that of middle-class residents results in greater
fragmentation of interests and contestations informed by class. This trend of involving
communities runs parallel with the municipal authority gradually offloading its obliga-
tory responsibilities and passing them on to agencies like local contractors and spurious
organizations that are often unaccountable and not transparent. The findings based on
case studies in Mumbai argue how these changes in policy and practice clearly leave
urban poor citizens like conservancy workers, volunteers of the SAP and slum residents
at a disadvantageous position.
Keywords: solid waste management; Mumbai; urban governance; community initia-
tives; civic activism; urban India

Introduction
Since the post-1990s, the solid waste management (SWM) sector has witnessed shifts
in policy and practice across urban India. The management of municipal solid waste is
an obligatory duty of municipal authorities in India, further strengthened by the 74th
Constitutional Amendment Act (CAA), 1992. Historically, SWM remained a neglected
area until the intervention of the Supreme Court of India that resulted in the Municipal
Solid Waste Management and Handling Rules, 2000,1 under the Environment Protection
Act, 1986. As a solution to the inability of municipal authorities to handle conser-
vancy operations, the Rules called for the involvement of actors like community-based

*Email: bintiacademics@gmail.com; bintisingh@gmail.com

ISSN 1751-6234 print/ISSN 1751-6242 online

© 2012 Taylor & Francis
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334 B. Singh

organizations, private contractors and nongovernment organizations (NGOs) in SWM

functions.
The changing contours of the SWM sector reflect shifts in urban governance in India
since the post-1990s, labelled variously as ‘urban entrepreneurialism’ (Harvey 1999), ‘new
urban politics’ (Nijman 2007) and ‘new managerialism in local governance’ (Desai and
Imrie 1998). These shifts resonate worldwide trends established in the existing literature
(Bailey et al. 1995, Elander 2002, Hodgson 2004). These changes were influenced by
international factors like the localization of Agenda 212 and national factors like the
liberalization of the economy in 1991, the decentralization agenda institutionalized in the
74th CAA, 1992 and mega urban programmes like the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban
Renewal Mission related to governance, infrastructure and basic services launched in
2005. Economic liberalization redefined the role of the state, the 74th CAA stressed on
decentralization and urban programmes stressed on citizens’ participation in governance.
Resultantly, urban governance in India underwent changes characterized by measures
to reduce public expenditure and gradual offloading of essential municipal services,
increasing efficiency in service provision by privatization, decentralization, introduction
of user charges and developing new delivery systems through greater involvement of
non-state actors like community-based organizations and local contractors. Such shifts
in urban municipal governance have been corroborated across urban India – Bangalore
(Benjamin 2000, Vijayalakshmi 2004, Ghosh 2005, Nair 2005, Baud and Dhanalakshmi
2007, Kamath and Vijayabaskar 2009), Hyderabad (Kennedy 2008), Chennai (Srinivasan
2006, Harriss 2007, Coelho and Venkat 2009) and Delhi (Baviskar 2003, Harriss 2005,
Lama-Rewal 2007).
In India, traditionally government departments have been primarily responsible for
addressing various aspects of urban governance like roads, public conveniences (such as
open spaces, toilets and gardens), water and SWM. The role of the local government in
the changed scenario altered from that of a direct service provider to that of a facilitator
enabling service provision through effective private and community partnerships. An illus-
tration will help establish this point. The budget estimate of the municipal corporation of
Greater Mumbai (MCGM) for the year 2010–2011 was a lump sum of 20417.31 crores
(approximately 200 million). The MCGM attributes this increase to its budget, as working
towards the central theme of ‘Transformation of Mumbai into a World Class City, sought
to be pursued through multi-pronged initiatives in various spheres of municipal function-
ing like strengthening civic infrastructure, upgrading social infrastructure and amenities,
cleanliness and improvement of city environment, city beautification and creation of
places of tourist interest and improving disaster preparedness’ (www.mcgm.org, 2011).
Most of these initiatives are sought to be achieved through effective community-based
partnerships.
With findings from detailed case studies of two community programmes in the SWM
sector in Mumbai, namely the Advanced Locality Management (ALM) groups and the
Slum Adoption Programme (SAP) operating in upper-class neighbourhoods and lower
income areas like slums, respectively, this article seeks to answer the question: Has greater
community participation in the SWM sector benefitted the pressing problems of SWM in
the mega city context of India?
This article is based on a qualitative analysis of detailed case studies carried from
2008 to 2010. I conducted an initial pilot study to identify citizens’ initiatives and civil
society organizations (CSOs) active in the SWM sector in Mumbai. After having identi-
fied such CSOs and initiatives, I carried out in-depth interviews with the office bearers
and members of some of the prominent CSOs involved in the SWM sector in Mumbai
 Journal of Asian Public Policy 335

like Apnalaya, Action for Good Governance and Networking in India (AGNI), Dignity
Foundation, Force Forum and the Stree Mukti Sangathan discussed in this article. Using
snowball and purposive sampling methods, I selected a sample of ALM groups and SAP
groups active in several parts of the city, namely Andheri West and Juhu in K-West ward,
Malabar Hills in D ward, D Road in Marine Drive in A ward, Pestom Sagar and Diamond
Garden in M-West ward and Vidyavihar West in N ward. I carried out a series of interviews
and repeat interviews with members and office bearers of ALMs and volunteers of SAPs
in the selected sample wards. I conducted 35 such open-ended and semi-structured inter-
views focusing on issues related to SWM to extract information as well as reflections from
the respondents. I interviewed other important stakeholders in the SWM sector in Mumbai
like officers on special duty of the municipal authority, municipal councillors, local politi-
cians and trade union leaders of the conservancy workers of the municipal authority for a
holistic understanding of the SWM sector in Mumbai. To critically understand the issues
that crop up in the involvement of communities and citizens in the SWM sector, I also
interviewed people living and earning their livelihoods in the locality, namely street ven-
dors, small shopkeepers and those living in slums in order to understand their inclusion in
community participation processes. Table 1 lists out the respondents from my sample who
are stakeholders in the SMW sector in Mumbai.
The number of stakeholders involved in community level initiatives in the SWM sector
in Mumbai is evident from Table 1. In reality, however, it is the ALMs and their actions that
are more visible than that of the SAP. ALMs are predominantly located in well-serviced
neighbourhoods and are led by resourceful middle class and elite citizens. They are well
networked with the NGOs and municipal officers in their respective wards, which facilitates
in getting their work done. SAP volunteers and chiefs in contrast live in poorly serviced
slums, are not well resourced and therefore at a disadvantageous position. It is evident from
their differential class positions that the middle-class-led ALMs (with the support of NGOs
and municipal officers) determine many of the actions on the ground.

Communities and SWM

The inability to handle massive amounts of waste and also to counter the powerful trade
unions of the conservancy department, the MCGM outsourced its functions. Community
initiatives like ALMs were the logical outcomes. The ALM model gained popularity partly
from the support of the MCGM and partly from civic activism in the city to curb further
strikes that threatened to halt basic services. An ALM is an identified locality, the residents
and users of which have committed to improving the quality of life in close cooperation
with the MCGM. It covers a neighbourhood or a street, with normally about 1000 citi-
zens, is registered in the municipal ward office, which appoints a nodal officer to attend
to citizen complaints. Initiated in 1998, there are as many as 50 ALMs spread across the
24 administrative wards of Mumbai.
The ALM model was first experimented in 1996 through a pilot project of waste
management in the residential colony of Joshi Lane, Ghatkopar East, a suburban area in
Mumbai. The residents worked to beautify the entire 200 m of either sides of Joshi Lane
by placing flower pots and plants on the lane using kitchen wastes, waste vegetables, flow-
ers and leaves. Regular meetings with the ward officers began to be conducted to deal
with civic issues like cleaning of drains, minor repair work on the roads and permission
for beautification. Similar pilot projects were carried out successfully in various localities
of A and D, F/North wards. ALMs were formally adopted on 23rd November 1997. The
active and prominent ALMs (located in N ward, M-West ward, K-West ward, A ward and
Table 1. Stakeholders in the SWM sector in Mumbai.
Stakeholder
Officers on special duty or ALM
officers working for the
municipal authority of
Mumbai. During the time of
the study, there were two ALM
officers in Mumbai
Chiefs of SAP
Volunteers of SAP in various
slums in the selected sample of
wards
Office bearers and members of
ALMs in the selected sample
of wards
Office bearers and members of
NGOs active in the SWM
sector
Ward officers in the sample
wards
Municipal councillors in the
sample wards, local politician
and trade union leader of the
conservancy department of the
municipal body of Mumbai
Number of
respondents SWM function
2 Address all issues and complaints
related to solid waste raised by
members of ALMs across the city
3 Overall supervision of SWM functions
in the slums areas of those wards
where SAP is being implemented
6 Involved in day-to-day garbage
collection and other functions related
to SWM in slums where SAP is being
implemented
9 Waste segregation, vermicomposting,
greening, beautification, maintenance
of gardens, appointing private
gatekeepers and cleaners if necessary
5 Various functions related to SWM,
cleanliness campaigns, help in the
formation of ALMs, link SWM
functions with other areas of work
like livelihoods of rag-pickers
5 Concerned primarily with collection,
transport and disposal of solid waste
on a daily basis in their respective
wards
5 Municipal councillors are not directly
concerned with SWM, some may
choose to play active roles
Interface with other stakeholders in
336
Geographical area the sector
The entire city within the Regular interactions with ALM
jurisdiction of the members and NGOs active in the
municipal authority SWM sector in Mumbai
In the slum areas of those Act as links between the municipal
wards where SAP is authority and the volunteers of the
being implemented SAP working on the ground
In slums where SAP is Volunteers receive their wages and
being implemented cleaning equipment from the
municipal authority through the
SAP chiefs of their particular
wards
Neighbourhoods located Regular interactions with municipal
within particular wards officers of the respective wards
B. Singh
where ALMs are located and
NGOs
NGOs have a city-wide Act as links between ALMs,
presence but are municipal authorities and other
usually active in those stakeholders depending on their
areas where ALMs are functional areas
active based on mutual
interactions
Area under the Regular interactions with ALM and
jurisdiction of the ward NGO members, SAP chiefs and
ALM officers
Area under the Some local politicians are also chiefs
jurisdiction of the ward of SAP in certain wards. They
therefore form a conduit between
the municipal authority, slum
residents and volunteers
 Journal of Asian Public Policy 337

D ward) made themselves visible over the years through the articulate use of media as
good examples of community activism. Most of the prominent ALMs in Mumbai have
graduated to larger issues like branding of localities as in Malabar Hills, holding festi-
vals as in Chembur and Bandra, forming larger federations like the Juhu Citizens Welfare
Group and the Malabar Hills Residents Association and even political mobilization since
the municipal elections in 2007.
Various other NGOs and citizen associations have been actively involved in the SWM
sector in Mumbai. The NGO Stree Mukti Sangathan is always at the forefront of initiatives
taken in the SWM sector and launched the Parisar Vikas programme in 1998 with the
cooperation of the MCGM to address the problems of waste management and of self-
employed women engaged in tasks of collecting waste. The objectives of Parisar Vikas
were twofold: (i) to organize and train women rag-pickers, and to try and improve the
standard of living of women rag-pickers by understanding their problems and (ii) also to
create a ‘Zero Waste’ situation in cities and keep surroundings clean and green by recycling
waste.
Dignity Foundation, a group of senior citizens, is another NGO that worked consis-
tently as a bridge between the MCGM and citizens for many years before the formation
of ALMs. They motivate conservancy workers and create awareness among the public.
It launched the Clean Mumbai Dignity project in January 1998. ‘663 Dignitarians worked
in 23 wards to come up with innovative ways of ensuring cleanliness. In June 2004, about
30–40 Dignitarians took out a padyatra (walk) through the G-South Ward accompanied by
MCGM officials’ (Indian Express 2004). In N ward, for instance, as many as 26 ALMs are
managed by Dignitarians under the Dignity Civic Services banner.
Another NGO, AGNI has been working in the area of good governance network at the
ward level since 1999 as a partner of the MCGM. Among its campaigns, AGNI’s efforts
to scuttle an MCGM workers’ strike brought it into the limelight. AGNI also helps citizens
form ALMs and is assigned an informal role in facilitating the formation, networking and
capacity building of ALMs and ALM networks. AGNI started representing the political
voice of middle-class citizens at city and state levels.
Private clubs like the Lions Club and Rotary Club and corporate houses have spon-
sored several projects run by ALMs. For instance, the Chembur Citizens Forum that
maintains the Diamond Garden in Chembur receives funds from the Hindustan Petroleum
Corporation Limited. Another corporate house, Bombay Dyeing funds the vermicompost-
ing initiatives of the Pestom Sagar Citizens’ Group. This ALM has also received corporate
funds from Prince Containers Private Limited and Prince Multiplast Limited for their eco-
friendly Ganesh Visarjan project in 2007. In their computer literacy programme for slum
children, this ALM has received funds from Tech Mahindra. The campaign of the Juhu
Citizens’ Welfare Group’s against the use of plastic and the ‘Go Green’ movement are
being sponsored by the ABN AMRO Bank.

SAP and contestations on the ground

The greater involvement of communities has complicated the SWM scenario in Mumbai
resulting in a clash of interests on the ground. The MCGM outsourced its cleaning work
in the slums of Mumbai through the SAP, the slum variant of ALMs. Under the SAP,
grants are allocated to slum communities according to estimated population figures by the
MCGM. According to a volunteer of the SAP in Mumbai:
338 B. Singh

The amount of the grant depends on the population of the slums in consideration which in
turn determine the number of volunteers required. This paltry sum given in the grant will def-
initely not attract many people to deliver their services for the slums. So who will address the
question of SWM within slums? Slum dwellers are already living in inhabitable conditions and
with no proper infrastructure for SWM, slums become beds of death and diseases. From the
allocated grant, payment is made to the SAP volunteers and cleaning equipment like brooms,
buckets and those for the volunteers like gloves, masks, boots are purchased. The work of our
volunteers includes sweeping, collecting and clearing the garbage. If municipal toilets exist
then they also clean the toilets. We also undertake cleaning campaigns and advocacy work in
the slums. (Interview, SAP volunteer, Shivaji Nagar slum, M-West ward, Mumbai, February
2010)

Unlike ALMs, SAP is not supported by middle-class NGOs, corporates and private clubs.
ALMs are more powerful and visible in their SWM activities. In their quest for maintain-
ing cleanliness, ALMs often ignore the needs of neighbouring slums. In his narrative, a
volunteer of the SAP pointed out:

Our main contention with the cleanliness activities of the ALM is that they aim for zero
garbage and that is why with the help from MCGM they have removed all centralised dust-
bins. That works fine for them because the MCGM trucks arrive by eleven in the morning
and collects the garbage from each building and leaves. But the SAP volunteers take time to
clean (because of the sheer difficulty of the task in the slums); they also collect the garbage
after lunch so by the time they finish their work it is late in the afternoon. We have requested
the MCGM ward office to send us trucks in the afternoon too when we collect more garbage
after people have had their lunch, but they did not. That is the reason the centralised dustbins
were required where garbage could be accumulated. One must understand the poor conditions
slum dwellers live in. They have very small rooms which can hardly accommodate people,
where can they keep their garbage? Moreover certain types of garbage cannot be kept inside
the house and have to be thrown outside. As such garbage attracts rats, cats and dogs. Because
of the absence of bins they throw garbage here and there leading to fights among neighbours.
(Interview, SAP volunteer, Pestom Sagar, M-West ward, Mumbai, February 2010)

The SAP has several gaps. First, it is a programme meant only for registered slums. Hence,
non-registered slums have to do away with SWM altogether. Second, SWM of redeveloped
slums is outrightly ignored. Third, the SAP has introduced changes in nomenclature, for
instance, the word ‘worker’ was replaced by ‘volunteer’ and the word ‘wages’ was replaced
by ‘mandhan’(voluntary work) without any corresponding changes in actual wages and
social security. In fact, volunteers are at a lesser bargaining position than regular conser-
vancy workers because their services are contractual and can be terminated any moment.
A trade union leader of the conservancy workers of the municipal authority narrated the
story of a worker called Shekhar Sundaram, who was killed by a truck used for garbage
collection. Both the MCGM and the concerned contractor for whom he worked refused
to compensate his family. With the intervention of the trade union and a legal battle that
went on for 4 years, the principal employer – the municipal authority – was finally made to
compensate.

Discussion
Economic and spatial restructuring have pressured municipal governments to raise rev-
enue, attract investments into the city for infrastructure, real estate, tourism and creating
a brand image of the city, to become self-reliant, depend more on their internal resources
and institutional finance that can range from ‘raising funds on the bond market, entering
 Journal of Asian Public Policy 339

loan agreements for infrastructure development, capital market borrowing, privatisation,

partnership arrangements and community-based projects’ (Chaplin 2007, p. 84).
Community initiatives like ALMs articulate exclusionary discourses on urban gov-
ernance that act as a ‘cushion’ for those exclusionary government policies that work
against the interests of poorer citizens, whom the local government may perhaps not like
to confront directly. Such exclusionary policies, for instance, zoning laws, vociferously
advocated by ALMs, are part and parcel of urban restructuring and governance processes,
nevertheless. For instance, in their spatial practices, most ALMs like the N Dutta Marg
ALM and the United Juhu ALM in Andheri West and Juhu, respectively, Pestom Sagar
Citizens’ Group in Pestom Sagar area and the Juhu Citizens’ Welfare Group in Juhu have
been forthright and also succeeded in removing street vendors and small shopkeepers
from their neighbourhoods. They used their professional expertise citing zoning and plan-
ning principles clubbed with aesthetics to negotiate with municipal officials to remove the
so-called encroachments (read street vendors).
The popularity of community partnerships involving middle-class residents like ALMs
marks the rise of a new kind of activism in the post-1990s. Difficult to define and classify,
yet powerful in its presence the middle class contributes to India’s growth story, shapes
public debates and is seen as the carrier of urban India’s aspirations. There could be
several reasons for this. First, the middle class has the resources to articulate, mobilize
around issues of common interest and develop an agenda. It has the economic and cultural
resources to do so. Second, most of the members of middle-class-led associations have
strong ties with government officials who prove useful during interactions and ‘getting
things done’. Some of the members of these associations are former insiders and are well
versed with how government departments function. Finally, members of the middle class
have access to various other resources, including the printing press, television channels and
the Internet that significantly help in gaining visibility. This class is also characterized by a
‘culture of consumption’ (Fernandes 2004), including consumption of collective services
like SWM. The principle of ‘self-governance’ underlying ALMs perfectly matched the
ideological position of the middle class which harboured aspirations for the city, including
making Mumbai a ‘world class city’, reclaiming urban spaces to its ‘rightful citizens’ that
had been encroached upon by street vendors and slum communities.
From the cases of ALMs and SAP in Mumbai, a clear demarcation along class lines
is evident in the prevailing SWM practices in the city. As earlier studies like those of
Zerah (2009) point out, the ALM scheme has ‘opened up opportunities for middle-class
activism to enter new areas, including political action by using various mobilization strate-
gies . . . however, the question of their attitude towards city restructuring and poorer
localities remains’ (Zerah 2009, p. 867). Shopkeepers in the locality (only big shops) con-
tributed to the ALM funds, but they did not attend meetings and other activities. Small
shop owners (garage shops, shop selling electronic parts, small beauty parlours and veg-
etable vendors) were neither included during the formation of ALMs nor thereafter. Most
of them interviewed in the study did not even know of their existence. Street vendors and
slum communities were perennial problems often categorized as ‘nuisance’ and therefore
fighting such groups was a top priority for ALMs in Mumbai.
While self-governance seemed to have gone down well with the educated, middle class
and elite citizens who are well networked and live in well-serviced neighbourhoods, the
same is not the case with poor neighbourhoods like slums. For instance, a slum resident
observed:
340 B. Singh

The municipal authority wants that people should learn to inculcate good habits and through
self governance take care of their own waste and garbage, and then the city will automatically
become clean. But tell me is it possible for a working person to first clean his house and
lane and then cook and bathe, drop children to school and then go to work? Multiple tasks
mean they need to be delegated. Moreover if the MCGM does not perform this basic task of
cleaning, then why does it have to exist? (Interview, slum resident, Irla slum, Juhu, Mumbai,
September 2009)

Significant differences based on class situations could also be delineated between various
ALMs spread across the city in terms of the services they commanded from the municipal
authority, visibility in the media and support from corporate houses. Many of the achieve-
ments of the prominent ALMs (located in Malabar Hills, Marine Drive and Nariman Point,
Juhu and Andheri) could be attributed to the strong social networks that were already in
place through years of civic activism, advantages of geographical location and frequent
interaction with municipal officials unlike those ALMs located in the lesser known areas
like Ghatkopar and Vidyavihar West in N ward.

Conclusion
From the cases discussed in Mumbai, two trends are clearly visible in the SWM sector.
First, the MCGM has greatly divested itself of the sole responsibility of SWM by
involving communities and passed on its obligatory functions to agencies (contractors
and spurious NGOs) that are often unaccountable. Workers receive an unfair deal in the
hands of such agencies and lose their entitlements they once received from the govern-
ment. The question of SWM in slum communities and rehabilitated buildings remains a
grave concern with no one in charge. MCGM officials even justified discrimination in their
services offered to areas having ALMs and those that did not, ‘. . . the city is cleaner at
the neighbourhood level now, waste recycling has increased, and the waste management
burden on the MCGM has been reduced. Citizens groups and corporate companies taking
on the maintenance of public spaces have further reduced the responsibility of MCGM to
protect land from encroachments’ (Redkar 2008, p. 219).
Second, experiments like the ALMs have encouraged a particular form of middle-
class activism in Mumbai and other cities, which act as self-appointed civil society play-
ers but clearly function in exclusionary ways. Through the articulate use of mass media,
other forms of communication, social networks and lobbying, middle-class-led activism
has greatly enhanced its role in public life in contemporary urban India. This is reflected
across various sectors of urban governance, including SWM. Newly acquired legal tools
like the Right to Information and Public Interest Litigations have further bolstered such
activism across cities of India. Such community initiatives like the ALMs in Mumbai pro-
vide opportunities for middle class and elite citizens to drive out street vendors and gain
exclusive access to common spaces like gardens and parks, all on the pretext of maintaining
cleanliness and beautification.

Notes
1. The SWM Rules, 2000, mark a watershed in the management of solid waste in urban centres
in India as for the first time, they laid out procedures for waste collection, segregation, storage,
transportation, processing and disposal. Second, these rules also specified standards for compost
quality, health control and management and closure of landfills. Third, these rules stress upon
collection of waste from its source of generation (households, office complexes and commercial
 Journal of Asian Public Policy 341

areas) and give procedures for distinct treatment of different categories of waste. Fourth, the rules
made the municipal body responsible to organize awareness programmes for segregation and
recycling of waste. Finally, the municipal authorities were required to adopt proper technologies
to recycle and process waste so as to minimize burden on landfill as prescribed in the rules.
It was expected that individual states would form their own rules on SWM drawing copiously
from the SWM Rules 2000 (Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India 2000).
2. The Localising Agenda 21 (LA21) Programme helps local authorities to use environmental plan-
ning and management (EPM) to identify and address key environmental issues. The programme
focuses on the sustainable development of secondary towns. LA21 builds the EPM capacities
of local authorities and supports human resource development. The programme encourages
partnerships between various local actors, mobilizes resources and promotes exchange between
cities facing similar problems (http://www.unhabitat.org/).

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