Delhi : Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban 2.0, under the aegis of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), is organizing a National conclave on ‘Social Enterprises for Garbage Free Cities: Encouraging Women Entrepreneurs in Waste management’ in collaboration with the Chhattisgarh Government on 3 March 2022 in Raipur.
Objective:
As part of the Mission’s capacity building initiatives, the day-long event will provide a platform to States and Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) on various centralised and decentralized waste management practices. The event will also witness the release of the “National Capacity Building Framework for Garbage Free Cities” under SBM-Urban 2.0, which will help build capabilities of relevant stakeholders to strengthen the urban sanitation sector in the country.
Various women-led waste management initiatives to be showcased:
A key attraction of the day-long event will be presentations of various women-led waste management initiatives from across the country.
-Hasiru Dala, a Bangalore-based organization works with waste pickers to transform them into waste entrepreneurs, thereby helping to improve their quality of life and livelihood.
-Cuttack Municipal Corporation in Odisha is working to economically empower transgender-led self-help groups by engaging them as waste operators.
-Pune’s Red Dot campaign by SWaCH co-operative is working to spread awareness regarding menstrual health, along with safe and sustainable disposal of sanitary waste.
– In Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, women-led self-help groups termed “SHE teams” have set up entrepreneurial ventures for operating and maintaining community toilets in slums, and spreading awareness regarding healthy sanitation and hygiene practices in slum communities.
-In Gurugram, Haryana, Saahas NGO, in collaboration with the Municipal Corporation is spearheading the ‘Alag Karo Campaign- Har Din Teen Bin’ to create awareness and implement source segregation of municipal solid waste into three fractions – wet (bio-degradable), dry (non-biodegradable) and domestic hazardous by residential communities.
Over the last seven years, the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban has harnessed the commitment towards building a ‘Clean India’ through the world’s largest urban sanitation revolution. The transformation in the country’s cleanliness over this period has been remarkable, with all 35 States and Urban Territories (UTs) created Open Defecation Free (ODF), the practice of segregating waste at source being adopted across 87% of wards and waste processing gone up by nearly 4 times, from 18% in 2014 to 71% at present in the country.
About Swachh Bharat Mission – U 2.0
The Prime Minister launched the Swachh Bharat Mission – U 2.0 with the goal of achieving “Garbage Free Cities.” For maximum resource recovery, the Mission is guided by the underlying ideas of “waste from wealth” and “circular economy.” The Mission is focusing on developing an enabling eco-system for opening up entrepreneurial opportunities in the sanitation sector through social enterprise growth, particularly among the economically disadvantaged and integrating women empowerment, as part of this process.