With a view to addressing the disparity in earnings of Haritha Karma Sena members involved in doorstep waste collection, the Local Self-Government department has suggested that groups be deployed on a rotational basis in wards with higher number of commercial establishments, from which earnings are considerably higher, compared to wards with predominantly residential areas.
The suggestions are part of the standard operating procedure for material collection facilities that the department issued earlier this week. The area of operation for each Haritha Karma Sena has to be fixed to ensure a fair monthly income.
Local bodies have been given the freedom to tweak the suggestions as per local requirements or follow existing models if they are ensuring a fair distribution of income.
The wards can be divided as clusters of a particular number of houses and commercial establishments for the purpose of waste collection by the different groups. Special arrangements, including common collection points, can be made for areas like the coastal belt where doorstep waste collection is yet to pick up.
As per information from the Suchitwa Mission’s data team, the technical support group in the waste management sector in the State, out of the 30,733 HKS members whose earnings have been recorded, 135 get above ₹25,000 per month (with a few recording above ₹50,000); 12,008 earn between ₹10,000 and ₹25,000 per month; 14,980 between ₹5,000 and ₹10,000; and 3,610 below ₹5,000. There are a few HKS units struggling, mainly in the coastal regions of Thiruvananthapuram, where household coverage still remains low.
In a seeming attempt to improve waste segregation, the SOP lays stress on the market value of each of the segregated waste rather than the total quantity of segregation. The Clean Kerala company has prepared a price list of various waste materials.
