I Own My Garbage

In the last decade, we were learning not to throw garbage and damage the surroundings. But I was not aware that in the near future, paradigms would change a lot. The new paradigm is “I own my garbage”. It was interesting to know that 6 tonnes of solid waste can produce up to 0.25 tones of methane, and horrifying to know that just 2 cities Kalyan and Dombivli dump more than 700 tonnes of garbage daily. Methane traps 64 times the heat that can be trapped by equivalent amount of carbon dioxide. Contribution of garbage to global warming and hygienic life is much beyond our imagination. So, we need to contribute on individual basis, which can make a big difference. Lets see how it can.

Nowadays, the awareness on reducing garbage is slowly gaining ground. As far as my town is considered, the municipal corporation is really trying hard to manage garbage effectively. But garbage increases exponentially. And residential areas contribute a lot. We really cant spend much of our time on that. More importantly, we also need to know the options as what to do. If we think different, we can practically do some small but positive things. I realized it when I started doing “Garbage to Fertilizer” project in a basket in my apartment. It takes very less space in my home and takes almost 15-20 min a day to put my kitchen waste and mix with bio-culture. It worked successfully, and in last 10 months I converted more than 300 kg of garbage to fertilizer. So, individual efforts do count. I met a few amazing people working for the same cause. Mrs. Nirmala Lathi from Pune has pioneered this project and implemented in more than 200,000 homes in Maharashtra. Mr. Kaustubh Tamhankar from Thane is implementing zero garbage at home, and he has even gone further to avoid non-degradable plastic from going in dust bin. One society in Thane is implementing a zero garbage project from last 9 years successfully. Many more people are coming up for this cause. A small group of Nyaan Prabodhini in my town helped manage the flower waste during Ganeshotsav.

Few big things to add. Adarsh school of Badlapur implemented Ecosan sanitation system with municipal corporations help and got great recognition. Similarly, in recent news, Municipal Corporation of Navi Mumbai got recognition for its 3 plants for treating waste water. The huge hoardings in South Mumbai constantly bombard on people to stop spreading waste. These measures are good, and will help in long run to fight the ever increasing garbage. But we are apparently addressing the tip of the iceberg. Big projects can handle garbage, but “increasing garbage” is the real nightmare which we are facing. Day after day, garbage is increasing. The land and ocean, both are proving short to accommodate our garbage. Someday, we might start using the Moon and the Mars to dump the garbage.

My garbage to fertilizer efforts are required lifelong, and wont stop now. It has given a cause to my life. It’s a long way to go, and I am trying to mold myself accordingly. The busy life always tries to pull me away from that, but the cause is great enough to keep this going. I believe that whatever nature gives us, we need to give it back in a proper manner. I have been getting a good response from people who adopted this method, and hope that this awareness spreads the new paradigm”I own my garbage”.

Amey Joshi

E-mail - trekamey@yahoo.com

Date – 13th January, 2010

Mandatory Voting

Bill implying voting on residents for the elections of local governing bodies has been passed by the much-discussed Gujarat state government. According to this Gujarat Local Authorities Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2009 if a voter fails to vote for the reasons other than the prescribed rules, he will be put in the ‘defaulter voters’ list & will have his license cancelled, passport debarred, won’t get the loans from the banks, will not be eligible to apply for the government jobs & so on. While election commission has proclaimed that it will have to be assessed whether it is feasible & practicable to implement the new concept, the chief Minister of Gujarat Mr. Narendra Modi on the other hand has roared in his usual style & has asked to leave the state of Gujarat to those who are not compliant with the decision. Since last many years the issue of making voting compulsory was being discussed again & again in public debates. Mr. Modi who believes more in implementation rather than debates have dared to step up towards true democracy by getting the bill passed.

As we all know that circus of Indian politics revolves around horse trading, money power, muscle power & opportunistic politicians, one of the way to restrict these things is to elevate & promote candidates having good character & strong political will to serve the people. But these candidates would get elected only when maximum number of educated people will vote. Contradictorily the fact says that when voting percentage in educated cities like Pune & Dombivli barely touches figure of 40, villages with enormous illiteracy in Gadchiroli district have done sent percent voting. It means people who are wiser, cleverer, can make decisions by analyzing the ground reality & are less likely to be the victims of baits like alcohol & money remain dormant. On the other side poor, illiterate people who could be easily deceived & could be easily bought are religiously participating in this important democratic process. Passed bill which also seeks to make the negative voting option available for the voters, could prove to be the remedy on this vital problem. But it is yet unknown whether button of negative voting option would be there on the electronic voting board itself or voter will have to suffer & go through some other complex process to cast his negative vote.

In the legislative assembly Congress party has strongly opposed the bill terming it to be the unconstitutional but at the same time has supported to the amendment in the bill which asks to give 33 to 50 % reservation for women in the local governing bodies. Rather they have asked for the two separate bills to be produced in the assembly for ‘compulsory voting’ & ’50 % reservation for women in local authorities’. It has to be taken into consideration that Indian constitution can not be kept unaltered forever. Periodically many changes have already been made in our constitution. So the claim of this bill going beyond the constitution could not be corroborated. Constitution is not the set of rules which is to be followed religiously for infinite amount of time nor does it mandatory that makers of the constitution did not make some law means we should not contemplate for the same today in 2009. Contexts do change as the time proceeds. It is right that as the election commission says there might be practical problems to implement this bill. When countries like Chilli have made it compulsory to cast the vote, people have found the way out by not registering their names in the voters list. With this reality in mind it needs to be noted that people especially Indians will find the way out to get escaped from the constraints implied by the new bill. This does not mean that new laws are not to be made nor does it imply that each new law made would prove to be useless. Every new change or revolutionary decision always appears impossible & impractical to get into reality at the beginning. So rather than criticizing the decision one has to look at the same as an experiment to strengthen the democracy which has to be implemented nation wide in future if turns out to be successful in Gujarat.

SAURABH JOGLEKAR

E-mail - saurabh.a.joglekar@gmail.com

Date – 23^rd December, 2009

A Big Frenzy for Small States

Soon after the home minister of India made an announcement of Telangana State creation; there were celebrations on one side & mayhem on the other. Government at the centre took into account the long lasting demand made by various outfits over last 40 odd years. The real contentious issue has come to the fore now – What will happen to the Cyber city of Hyderabad? Moreover near to 100 MLAs from across the parties have resigned protesting the move by central government. In coming days we will definitely witness immense drama over the issue. But the real underlying issue is whether small states act as a catalyst for inclusive development & better life style for the people involved?

We have a heavy bag of experiences from the creation of smaller states. Uttaranchal for e.g. has been able to project & create its own identity in tourism space since it has been balkanized from Uttar Pradesh. As the needs for the region ‘Uttaranchal’ were far too different from that of Uttar Pradesh, it was not able to garner enough resources, access points to spur the tourism which is the mainstay for a region involving such a scenic beauty. On the other side, we have smaller states like Jharkhand, Goa which have remained politically fragile for quite some time now. 2/3 MLAs can swing the political balance from one party to the other. Horse trading & opportunistic politics have been natural outcomes of it. Chhattisgarh adds one more angle to it. Densely covered with forests & affected ridiculously by naxals, Chhattisgarh, is trying hard to move through the hurdles & make lives of the people comfortable.

After seeing the current frenzy of demands for myriad small states made by various groups – outfits-political parties-influential people, it can be said that as a nation we have come a long way. We as a Nation, mature with every passing second. New ideas fill our hearts; we want to have things in different order rather than maintaining a status quo. Due to the current demographics we also get emotional & aggressive quite easily. At the time when we were getting our freedom back, our visionaries thought the criterion for dividing India into states should be languages. But it seems enough water has gone under the bridge. Though newly evolved dialects or cultures seem to be the basis for seeking new states, if taken a earthworm’s approach, important aspects also involve development, deception of people, geography which a people in particular region have lived through. People in Telangana speak Telagu with a little different dialect due the mixture with some Urdu & Marathi words. Also they have evolved a culture which is different from other parts of Andhra Pradesh. If topic is churned little further, one may easily find that separate Telangana movement, which started in 1969, was due to the violation of Gentlemen's agreement of Andhra Pradesh (1956) signed between the then leaders of Telangana & Andhra Pradesh. People become emotional if they are deceived. Similar is the case with demand for separate Vidarbha which is a part of Maharashtra right now. Language dialect may be somewhat different from usual Marathi due the Vidarbha’s proximity to Madhya Pradesh, but the amount of development forms the crux for the demand. Agrarian crisis is worst seen in the region transforming it into an epicenter of farmers’ suicides. Take an e.g. of Harit Pradesh (Braj Pradesh Or Western Uttar Pradesh), supposed to be carved out of Uttar Pradesh, which seem to have made its way to the list because inhabitants resemble more with people from Haryana & Rajasthan (adjacent states) than their counterparts in eastern Uttar Pradesh. Difference leads to the creation of new things. But there is a catch again. Harit Pradesh has benefited a lot from the Green Revolution & life styles have changed quite a lot which has happened in Eastern Uttar Pradesh. Reason might be anything from not so conducive climate to infertile land to land ownership, but result is same. Let’s move on to Gorkhaland, to be separated out of West Bengal. It is said Gorkhaland is to be separated because the cultures are different & it should be preserved by giving a separate statehood. The area which is being proposed for the same is the northern hilly area near to Sikkim. Development model cannot be same for Gorkhaland & rest of West Bengal. There are many other states being asked for viz. Mithilanchal, Bodoland, Bundelkhand, Saurashtra, Koorg etc. Differential development (under-development) within a state gets converted into a feeling of getting new identity after sometime.

Factors behind separate statehood may include Population, Culture, Language, Geography, Public Emotions, and Development. It should be looked on case to case basis. Government in centre should come up with a policy which will cater to all these requirements. Nobody should be allowed to take political mileage out of it. Each state must be divided into regions & development models should be implemented accordingly. Also population striving for state government machinery should be considered. As long as India remains integrated, smaller states should not be a problem. But at the same time we should understand that we cannot have states for all new dialects & cultures which get evolved in the course of time because cultures get developed after the basic needs are dealt with. Let’s concentrate on those first. Ultimately, we all are same, aren’t we?

Prasanna Vaidya

prasanna.vaidya@gmail.com

Date – 10^th January, 2010