Waste pickers battle religious fervour to keep rivers clean

Every year, Pune’s waste pickers face an uphill battle during Ganesh Chaturthi to dissuade devotees from dumping floral offerings in the city’s rivers.

It is two in the afternoon, and waste picker Rebecca Kedari treads warily while approaching a throng charged with religious fervour at one of the immersion points in the city.

Her mission: preventing a group from dumping nirmalya (floral offerings to Lord Ganesh) in the Mula-Mutha river. After a half-hour spent in the rain cajoling truculent devotees, she finally succeeds in retrieving the flowers, leaves and garlands. “Often, we literally go down on our knees and beg them to give us nirmalya ,” says Ms. Kedari. She joined the waste pickers cooperative SWaCH in 2008 when it was established.

The cooperative’s ‘Project Nirmalya’, which assigns 100 waste pickers at the city’s 17 immersion ghats, has been battling to keep the city’s river pollution-free during the Ganesh festival.

Helping hands

In 2013, these waste pickers, aided by environmentally-conscious volunteers, diverted a staggering 97 tonnes of waste, both organic and non-biodegradable, from the Mula-Mutha and the Indrayani rivers. This year, they aim to divert more than 110 tonnes of waste.

“While certain prominent Ganesh Mandals are at times reluctant to hand over their

nirmalya to us, the household ones prove to be the most obstinate despite all the talk of eco-friendly celebrations among the ostensibly well-educated,” says Suman More, another waste picker.

“Misdirected religious fervour is a bane for waste pickers who understand the value of waste like no other. The biggest challenge for them is to drive home the sentiment of environmental accountability into the minds of festive crowds,” says SWaCH coordinator Pratibha Sharma.