It’s a warm weekday, and the afternoon slump has set in over Siddhartha Nagar colony, a notified slum in the Peenya Industrial Area.
Children have gone off to school, most men are at work. Women, majority of whom are waste pickers, are taking a break and finishing off lunch before starting to segregate the day’s collection. One of them is seen doing laundry near the water storage tank located at the entrance to the colony.
“We have enough water now. There has been no dearth of water this year, not atleast until now,” says Jyoti, who lives in the colony. It sounds pleasantly surprising given the severity of the water crisis that has grappled several parts of the city.
Siddhartha Nagar is one of the nine slums in Bengaluru that have benefited from WaterAid India’s interventions as part of Saamuhika Shakti, a collective initiative by 10 organisations for waste pickers in the city. WaterAid India focuses on the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) aspects, and phase-1 of the project concluded in February this year.
According to the non-profit, 6,555 informal waste pickers and their family members have benefited from the project so far. The team is now gearing up for phase-2 of the project.
Giving agency to the marginalised
Initiated and supported by H&M foundation, Saamuhika Shakti is a first of its kind initiative in India where multiple organisations have come together to enable informal waste pickers, says Hemalatha Patil, State Programme Director at WaterAid India.
Phase 1 of the programme started in 2019 and WaterAid India started by identifying slums where informal waste pickers resided. This was done with the help of Hasiru Dala. The criteria for selection of the slums included the number of households (minimum 15-20), scope for infrastructure creation in the locality and operations by other consortium partners also in the geography.
As per data Bengaluru has around 22,500 informal waste pickers. Majority of them are migrants from other parts of the state living in non-notified slums | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
“Our goal was to reach 5,000 informal waste speakers and to provide them with access to safe water and sanitation. We selected 13 slums to reach the target. These had a mix of notified and non-notified slums,” says Patil.
As per data Bengaluru has around 22,500 informal waste pickers. Majority of them are migrants from other parts of the state living in non-notified slums.
To work with non-notified slums, however, is challenging as the land is owned by private parties. This means it would be impossible to build permanent structures there. There could also be ongoing litigations. Owing to such challenges the team had to drop four of the 13 slums eventually.
WASH gap in slums
According to Patil, several factors contribute to WASH gap in slums.
“The slum development board has to provide basic facilities to slums. In some places where they have provided the facilities, the community was not able to manage it. In some other slums, the infrastructure provided by the slum board was not sufficient,” she notes, adding that there are also slums where no infrastructure has been provided at all.
The team started by visiting the slums and interacting with the communities to understand the issues and mobilise community participation.
“We facilitated discussions to understand the challenges they are facing. Some would have issues related to accessing water, for some others access to toilet would be the problem. They would tell us what their requirements are,” explains Patil.
Following this technical assessments and feasibility studies were done and plans for each slum was drawn up. While 90% of the costs were born by the organisation, 10% was the contribution of communities. As part of the programme, joint accounts were opened, operation and maintenance (O&M) committees were formed with people from the communities as members and awareness activities were carried out.
A community toilet complex constructed by WaterAid India | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
The baseline data and broad plans were shared with government departments such as BBMP, BWSSB and slum board and permissions were obtained.
“Some of the communities wouldn’t believe us initially. Many of them started trusting only after the construction of the infrastructure started,” says Shyam Sundar, community facilitator at WaterAid India.
Once completed, the facilities were handed over to the communities. Every household pays monthly Rs 200 towards the maintenance of the facilities.
Durgamma, a resident of Sumanahalli slum and member of the O&M committee, says that the slum residents are more than happy to pay the sum.
“Before the construction of the community toilet here, we used to resort to the public toilet facility nearby. For each usage we had to pay ₹10. Or else we had to relieve in the open,” she recollects.
Women beneficiaries
Sumanahalli slum has around 120 households, all migrants from Koppal. While the slum had a community toilet it was dysfunctional. This was retrofitted under the programme and the biggest beneficiaries have been the women of the community.
“Earlier we had to wake up early in the morning while it was still dark and go very far to relieve ourselves. It used to be a big problem as there would be miscreants in those areas,” recollects Durgamma.
Similar was the experience of women in Siddhartha Nagar colony where all residents are migrants from Yadgiri.
“We go for waste picking at 6.00 in the morning. Before that we have to wake up and go to the drainage or the ‘kere’ to relieve ourselves,” say Jyoti and Renuka, both residents of Siddhartha Nagar. The drainage is a rajakaluve bordering the slum.
A resident of Siddhartha Nagar colony doing laundry near the water storage tank | Photo Credit: The Hindu
“We had to go in groups every time as there would be troublemakers in these areas. We also had to ensure someone’s there at home because toddlers and kids can’t be left alone.”
Yet another challenge was collecting water. The water supply would only last for a few hours in the morning and the responsibility of fetching it fell on the women. This meant time lost for work.
As part of the programme, a water storage tank and a community toilet unit which consists of bathrooms and toilets for men, women, kids, elderly and disabled have been constructed here. The women of the community feel these infrastructures have made life easier for them.
Entering phase-2
According to WaterAid India, during phase 1 of the programme access to pipe water supply was provided in four slums, five sanitation complexes were retrofitted in four slums and two new toilet units were constructed in one slum and one dry waste collection centre.
The team is currently in the process of identifying slums for phase-2 of the programme.
“We are planning to work with 15 slums. In the second phase, we will have both notified and non-notified slums,” says Patil.
“In non-notified slums we may not be able to complete the activity as per the timeline. Second issue is sustainability. We cannot create permanent infrastructure in these localities, but we need to figure out some technology by which we could look at portable facilities so that it will not lead to disputes with landowners. It may be temporary, but at least it will ensure access.”
