India’s enormous economic growth, deep cultural divisions, fragile infrastructure, and stressed ecological systems may make it one of the least sustainable places on earth. But I just returned from Mumbai and I wonder if the opposite is more accurate. The public awareness and discussion of sustainable development and climate change awed me. It’s not just the words painted everywhere on signs and billboards promoting recycling and deriding pollution. It’s not just menus at ordinary restaurants promoting local, organic, good-for-the-environment food. It’s not just headlines and stories in major newspapers specifically addressing issues (and using words) such as sustainability, climate change, infrastructure development, and energy planning. It’s not just business leaders talking specifically about greening their supply chains in preparation for a climate and resource stressed future. No. It is so much more.
The challenges of solid waste management in India are daunting, to say the least. And there are, as there should be, many strategies including high-tech waste-to-energy systems and cradle-to-cradle recycling, the latter intends to completely dematerialize economic growth—impressive but not unusual solutions common in global circles.
Another model—currently the dominant model in India—of the waste management system is for people to pick through the wastes the rest of us generate. They figuratively and literally collect, sort, recycle and redistribute shit. Observing the working conditions and lifestyles firsthand is not for the faint western heart. Improving the conditions and opportunities of people trapped in waste-picker status is downright heroic.
Chintan and Stree Mukti Sanghatana are such organizations deserving our utmost admiration and support. I am more than impressed; I am profoundly grateful for their gifts to humanity.
But why do I feel awe? Because the waste pickers care about sustainable development and climate change. Relative to those of us fortunate to have the time to read blogs and think deep thoughts, these people, by necessity, focus their time and attention managing day-to-day survival. Yet in the work they do—waste picking—they derive meaning and motivation from the abstract ideas of climate change and sustainability.
They explicitly associate waste with terrorists. Waste is bad. It is dangerous. It is a threat. It must be overcome Waste pickers are part of the “clean army,” which is analogous to the army army, defending India against threats from boarder nations and terrorists. They are proud that by waste picking they reduce green house gas emissions, recycle materials, reduce mining, saves trees, captures lost nutrients for soil, and on and on. On the flip side they talk about nature as a source of life. Nature provides humanity a loan of its resources and services. And a loan must be repaid.
Now I admit that I do not know how deeply these motivations and understandings penetrate waste picking culture—I cannot see clearly because of cultural and language barriers—but that I hear it at all seems remarkable when I turn my gaze back home.
The USA also uses nationalistic and militaristic analogies to frame socio-political concerns. We fight wars against drugs and against religious terrorists. But we can hardly talk about larger game changing issues such as climate change and sustainable development. Perhaps we are too buffered from reality, too distracted by gadgets, too bored by novelty, or just plain insensitive to the world around us. Many in India are feeling climate change and (un)sustainable development. Perhaps that is why India will lead the coming transition.
(Video of Chintan Waste Picking shed in New Delhi Train Station; making a difference by improving conditions and creating fair business models)