Mora Aangna Mora Gehana to Evoke a Sense of Pride Among Citizens of the Town in Keeping Their Surroundings Clean

Mora Aangna Mora Gehana The little known Kumhari is a small town of 35,000 citizens. City managers were people located in Durg district of flooded with an ever increasing town of Kumhari Chhattisgarh. It is spread over an number of complaints from people area of 36 square kilometres and to address the problem. in Chhattisgarh underwent a administered by a Nagar Palika Parishad. The town is divided into Solid waste management is part of quiet revolution 24 administrative wards. Nearly 70 public health and is entrusted to in effectively per cent of its area is used for the local government. The Nagar agricultural activities. Palika Parishad being a small urban managing its local body with limited resources solid waste Just as any other Indian town, and expertise at its disposal, the Kumhari has had its challenges due problem persisted for several years to rapid urbanization. Haphazard and got worse with the passage of dumping of solid waste was one of time. A crumbling infrastructure the perennial problems faced by added to the town’s woes. Light at the End of the Tunnel In 2013, the Nagar Palika Parishad of Kumhari and Avantha Foundation began a joint initiative to make five selected wards of the town waste-free. The project was named Mora Aangna Mora Gehana to evoke a sense of pride among citizens of the town in keeping their surroundings clean. A local organization from Raipur, Samarthan Centre for Development Support was roped in to provide assistance at the grassroots level. The solid waste management in Kumhari was part of a broader initiative by Avantha Foundation to improve democratic governance through institutional capacity building, citizen participation and multi-stakeholder engagement. The Foundation works with several urban local governments across the country to address similar challenges. Mora Aangna Mora Gehana The project was initiated in wards 7, 8, 9, 14 and 15 to provide citizens with healthy and hygienic surroundings, free from accumulated solid waste. A major thrust of the initiative was also to evolve an evidence-based model of effective solid waste management so as to enable replication in other needy areas, contributing to sustainable urban development. While Kumhari Nagar Palika Parishad implemented the project on ground under a cost-share agreement with Avantha Foundation, technical guidance and capacity building of the Nagar Palika Parishad staff was provided by the Foundation. Grassroots support to the project as well as evaluation Nagar Palika Parishad assistance were provided by the local partner Samarthan. The focus of intervention was on enhancing responsiveness of major Although Nagar Palika Parishad was stakeholders. Capacity building of responsible to maintain hygienic Nagar Palika Parishad staff and conditions in wards, the project ward councilors on Chhattisgarh also reached out to several citizen Municipal Council Act, 1961 and on groups, NGOs and CBOs to help solid waste management was the address the problem. Interventions first step. Creatively managed were planned at two levels to public discourses, discussion fora, generate maximum impact – within sharing of findings from local the Nagar Palika Parishad itself and surveys and success stories, as well with citizens at large spread over as exposure visits were able to the five selected wards. bring councilors into learning mode “The project has changed the way the ward looks now… Filthy streets and overrunning sewerage lines are now things of the past. It gives me immense satisfaction as a ward councilor.” - Mrs Girija Sahu that preceded action on the were extensively used to promote ground. These efforts eventually proper waste disposal by citizens. led to the implementation of a While awareness programs to a door-to-door solid waste collection large extent helped to highlight the strategy that later proved to be a issue of safe disposal of solid waste, core intervention responsible for increased community participation the project’s success. through Mohalla Vikas Samitis provided the impetus for change. Citizens & Community Collective thinking, brainstorming and interfacing by citizens created The approach was to generate ownership and provided the awareness on safe disposal of solid required momentum for citizen waste. Several initiatives like wall action such as micro-planning and paintings, posters, rallies, kala monitoring of services. Additional jaathas and community meetings community efforts like sanitation rallies, daily cleaning of streets and area. Although the initial costs for citizen capacity building on the 74th door-to-door collection was borne Constitutional Amendment resulted jointly by the Nagar Palika Parishad in sensitization of stakeholders. and Avantha Foundation, the project soon introduced a plan to How it Worked generate revenue from the service so as to make it financially viable and self-sustaining in the long run. Following initial interventions like mass awareness campaigns and capacity building activities, the Monitoring of Services project was rolled out in five wards. Dust bins were given to each All rickshaw pullers reported to the household to enable collection and Sanitation Inspector at the Nagar segregation of waste at the Palika Parishad on completion of household level. Rickshaw pullers work every morning. Members of were engaged by the Nagar Palika the Mohalla Vikas Samiti ensured Parishad to go around every that rickshaw pullers visited their morning to collect household residential areas regularly and waste. The solid waste thus reported deficiencies in service, if collected was dumped at specified any. Additional monitoring and places within the ward for further supervision was provided by ward transportation to the safe disposal councilors in their areas. “Earlier it was impossible for us to even walk on the road as there was huge amount of waste dumped here and there. Now as the garbage is being collected by rickshaw pullers, roads look much cleaner.” - Mrs Lata Sen, Resident Nagar Palika Parishad takes a lead role in mobilizing community around the issue. While institutionalization of services within Nagar Palika Parishad ensured leadership and helped to sustain momentum, involvement of citizens and elected representatives facilitated a process of transition towards financial sustainability of this unique experiment. Sustaining the impact The Nagar Palika Parishad currently supports solid waste management in Kumhari. However, after a series of community consultations, a user fee has been introduced in an effort to make the service financially viable. Action has also been taken to produce manure from decomposed waste, thereby making it a source of revenue. A waste treatment plant has been proposed for the town as a long-term solution. Through door-to-door collection of waste, the project has made it possible to keep the wards clean and litter-free. Community awareness around the issue of solid waste management increased significantly as Mohalla Vikas Samitis resulted in enhanced participation by citizens. Interface between citizens and ward councilors improved in a Citizens too were largely unaware constructive manner. As a result, of waste management and health citizens have strongly supported risks associated with haphazard Nagar Palika Parishad’s efforts to dumping of waste. In general, they build a trenching ground and waste were also unaware of the role they decomposing unit for the town. could play in the governance of the town as engagement with elected Challenges representatives remained minimal. Citizen engagement initiatives Lack of information, capacity and taken by the project, especially the ignorance towards innovation and initial rounds of capacity building and Mohalla Vikas Samitis helped good governance within the Nagar to aggregate citizen opinion at scale Palika Parishad itself was a major challenge the project grappled with and engage them with their ward during initial stages. Bringing about councilors in a manner that never a change in perspective among happened before. executive and elected wings of the urban local body took a lot of time Financial sustainability of solid and efforts. Once this was done, waste management is still being the door for institutionalizing new addressed by Nagar Palika Parishad. processes became relatively Although several initiatives have been taken in this direction with effortless. a share of cost of the activity already being met through collection of user fees, accomplishment of this objective still appears some distance away. Through this pioneering work, both the Nagar Palika Parishad of Kumhari and Avantha Foundation have successfully demonstrated a working model of solid waste management – a key issue in most urban areas – by enhancing capabilities and engaging citizens at an unprecedented level. While the model itself has shown the potential for replication, long-term financial self sustainability remains an area needing more work. “User fee collection in my ward is more than 80%. I am so proud of my ward members. This all could happen only because we provided good service to the citizens. We should try other innovations too to make Kumhari a more citizen-friendly town.” - Mr Om Narayan Verma, Ward Councilor Avantha Foundation B-14 Shangrila Gardens Bund Garden Road, Pune Maharashtra 411001 Tele: +91-20-26166289/26166489 Enable . Empower . Enhance www.avanthafoundation.org PHOTOGRAPHS: Avantha Foundation .

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