Being Indian: Waste Segregation

So, what is it that has made me so mad this time? Is it the lonely plastic tag in the wet waste bin, the used diaper that has been sitting on the footpath down the road for days or the little garbage dumps that have sprung all across Bangalore City?

About a month ago, the BBMP took a great initiative to distribute pamphlets motivating residents of Bangalore to segregate their waste. The reason for this move was that the use of the Mavallipura landfill, where Bangalore dumped its garbage, was suspended. If residents segregate their garbage, the dry waste can directly be sent for recycling and the wet waste for composting. It is a month later and this plan has dreadfully failed. While the government is trying to deal with the problem by bridging the gaps in the implementation of this garbage revolution, some residents continue to strongly believe that segregation is a “waste” of their time and that it is in fact the BBMP's responsibility to do so.

Firstly, it is a lot simpler and less time consuming to segregate your garbage. You dispose of your wet waste every day and your dry waste only once a week. Since we've started doing this at home, we've realised that it is a lot more cleaner and there are absolutely no fruit flies. Secondly, it is impossible to segregate garbage after it has been mixed. All of your dry waste will probably be covered in tea leaves and drenched in tomato juice; and your wet waste will be tainted with non-biodegradable bits of plastic. Dry waste that has been mixed with wet waste cannot be recycled. Therefore, it is NOT BBMP's responsibility to segregate garbage. It is our responsibility.

“Why should we segregate garbage for BBMP if they cannot even provide us with good roads?” We are not segregating garbage for BBMP. We are doing it for ourselves, for a cleaner city, for better hygiene, for the environment and more. Since the initiative has begun, the locality I live in has seen the birth of many small dumps on every street. I am not referring to the large dumps that are emerging across the city due to the anomalies in the system; I am talking about lonely garbage bags that are just lying around randomly. These bags are thrown by residents who are too lazy to segregate.

Garbage attracts all kinds of things. From being kicked around and strewn across the street by stray dogs to becoming a breeding ground for insects and pests. But the most hazardous effect of these little garbage dumps is that it attracts and becomes a feeding ground for rodents. When the number of rodents equals the number of residents in a given area, it gives rise to plague. It is not a meager issue, but a larger one at hand.

The effects of unsegregated waste are endless. It poses great risks to the health and hygiene of the pourakarmikas. Try putting your hand into a bin of mixed waste and chances are, you will get scratched and cut by pieces of metal, glass, pins, blades, needles, etc. They are also exposed to infectious sanitary waste, hazardous e-waste as well as rotting wet waste on a daily basis. All of this because we are too lazy to use two separate bins for our waste.

When waste is not segregated, it ends up in a dump. These dumps are an environmental threat and pose many risks to other species. The film, The Plastic Cow, shows the plight of cows that were found with huge amounts of plastic in their stomachs leading to their slow and painful deaths. Many marine creatures fall prey to garbage dumping near the sea. The GreatPacific Garbage Patch is a floating pile of garbage that has been spun together by the currents of the ocean. While the patch exists close to Hawaii, there is no guarantee that we are not creating our very own in the Indian Ocean. 

Not segregating garbage affects the country at large. As residents of Bangalore, we must be proud that our municipality has at least taken an initiative to educate us to be more responsible citizens. Multiply one city's problem several times to envision the the bigger picture. A country such as India, that relies greatly on agriculture, can make great progress with sustainable living. Waste management can ensure that a larger portion of wet waste is composted and turned into useful energy.

In the current situation of the country, we must be resourceful and optimize the use of everything, including our garbage. Waste management only ends with segregation; it begins with acquiring less garbage. Go old school and use steel or glass plates and cups instead of paper or plastic ones. Carry your own bottle of water, do not buy packaged water. Carry a bag when you're shopping and refuse plastic covers. Re-use anything and everything. If you can't re-use it, pass it on to someone who can.

BBMP does need to take some more steps to mobilise this initiative – ensure better waste management by commercial bulk generators, training of pourakarmikas to refuse and appropriately collect unsegregated waste, training of citizens to understand the necessity of waste segregation and a system for identification and punishment for those who break the rules.

No city or society can make progress without active participation of its citizens. So while BBMP tackles the issue of correctly transporting the segregated garbage, we as citizens must not stop segregating. We must start segregating waste as a lifestyle rather than an obligation to the law.

I would like to thank Vani Murthy, Shyamala and their team for providing me with the necessary information and insight for this piece.

Being Indian: Clothing and Rape

With discussions about women's clothing inviting trouble making the rounds, I remember an incident from a few years ago. I went out for a drink with a large group of friends. I wore a comfortable pair of old knee length shorts and a t shirt. My shorts were a bit weathered and torn and one of my friends thought it would be no big deal to slide his hands up one of the tatters. He was wrong. The same night, I neatly folded my shorts, put them away and never wore them again. They gather dust in my cupboard but I miss them. They were the most comfortable pair of shorts I owned – old, filled with memories and a gift from a friend. That night this guy thought that since my shorts were torn, I was easy. And It wasn't just him that made that connection. My then boyfriend also said “Of course, with those shorts, what did you expect?”

I'll tell you what I expect. I expect that when I wear something, or smoke a cigarette in public, or go on a night-out with just my girlfriends, I am in no way asking to be touched. I wear the kind of clothes that I do because when I look in the mirror I feel good – I feel confident, comfortable and most of all, I feel me. It is my own right to choose what I wear and how I express myself. Be it a pair of shorts, jeans, three-fourths, a bright red kurta or a silk saree. What I wear in no way translates to permission to grope me.

Yes, of course it would have made a bigger impact for me to begin this piece with an anecdote about how I got felt up in a kurta or a burkha. But the focus isn't what I'm wearing but what happened. My thigh was grazed by fingers without my consent. And the fact that I was wearing a pair of shorts shouldn't be considered as evidence in this case.

In this whole discussion about the relation between clothes and rape, where do men stand? We are assuming here that regardless of what women wear, men are like hungry dogs. Salivating over every mini-skirt and spaghetti top that passes by. We assume that men have no self control whatsoever. And with that we assume that the only way to fix the problem is by telling women what to wear.

I understand that by what I've just said, you assume that I only blame this on the mindset of men. While actually the problem lies in the way all of us think, refer and talk about the things we see. A large part of this very thinking is enforced by women - Mothers who tell their sons and daughters that women dressing a certain way Is wrong. When you publicize your judgements about a woman's clothing on to your children, you endorse molestation. It's that simple. The only way that this relation between clothing and rape is going to stop is if we stop labelling people based on what they wear. If you tell your son that a certain woman is dressed inappropriately, he will think the woman is easy and that touching her without her consent won't be wrong.

This is not a feminist issue. It is a human rights issue. Men are also groped, molested and raped. Every man I know has been groped by men and women. Nobody likes to be touched when not asked for. Touching somebody without their consent is simply an inhuman thing to do. Period.

I am forced to return to talk about sexuality. The lack of sex education in this country causes us to repress our sexuality so much that the so called “eve-teasing” is so common that it is expected. As a woman, I can safely say that I get cat calls, felt up or flashed at least once a week. That's over 50 times a year. And this is one woman's experience. And at the end of it, it doesn't matter what I'm wearing.

Today, I'm ashamed to say that I am from Bangalore City. The first city in the world to cancel SlutWalk. A global movement that was cancelled simply because the Bangalore Police succumbed to the protests from right wing groups. Instead of protecting the thousand citizens that wanted to walk for safety of their men and women, they cancelled it because right wing groups protested. What does that say about our police? That when I'm out on the streets in the night, wearing a pair of jeans and a t shirt, I will always be the victim and I will always be the cause. My safety along with so many others is compromised.

Regardless of all these people who make up the terrible world we live in, I see hope and therefore applaud the vice chancellor of Bangalore University to say that what this city needs is a change of mindset. That is what will stop victim blaming. Educate your children, let them know that nobody asks to be touched without consent – their clothes don't, their habits don't, their lifestyle doesn't. A sexual act without consent is wrong. There are no two ways about it. What we need is for people to start treating each other like human beings. Nobody asks to be raped – and most importantly their clothes don't.