PMC workers to help with waste segregation study

PUNE: The Pune Municipal Corporation workers' union, along with a group of researchers, will train members of the civic body's conservancy staff to collect information and create awareness about garbage segregation.
"The PMC conservancy staff comprises people who work on the ground. Hence, if they are guided, they can be utilised to collect data and give feedback about the situation regarding waste segregation in every area," said Mukta Manohar, general secretary of the workers' union.
Manohar said that the workers will help get information such as the amount of wet and dry garbage collected and the reasons why segregation is not being done at source. "The programme will start in Bhavani Peth and Sahakarnagar, where 100 workers from each area, researchers and activists will try to get to the root of the issue," said Manohar.
The programme will be one of the initiatives started by the researchers' cooperative formed in Pune, which is headed by Anand Karandikar, chairman of the governing body of the Indian Institute of Cost Management Studies and Research (IndSearch).
Others who have joined hands with Karandikar and Manohar for this initiative are National Society for Clean Cities president Satish Khot, former PMC commissioner Ramanath Jha and Maharashtra Cosmopolitan Educational Society president PA Inamdar. Activists Sarita Awad, Archana More, Megha Thatte and Milind Bhore are also part of the initiative.
"We will train these conservancy staff members on the concept of barefoot research, where the common man also helps in research," Karandikar said. Members of the cooperative will discuss and finalise a model to analyse the garbage segregation problems that the city is grappling with.
The first step will be data collection, in which barefoot researchers will take pictures, record reasons for residents not segregating garbage and also compare it with areas where segregation is carried out in a model manner, he said.
"Apart from the 100 PMC workers in each area, 100 students and 50 social activists will help in the research," he added.
Karandikar said that the members of the cooperative will provide the tools, methodologies and guidance for this research and that he expects results about better segregation practices within two to three months.
"Not only will the workers be trained, but they will be empowered and taught how to spread awareness about the necessity of segregation," said Manohar.