LIVE PROJECTBOTTOM OF THE PYRAMIDA UNIQUE LEARNING OPPORTUNITY

Dr. Sushil Kandalgaonkar

Context of Pune city

• Wicked (long) problems of urban spaces: Traffic, Water supply, Pollution, Waste disposal

• Multiple stakeholders : citizens, PMC, institutions, SWaCH waste-pickers, residential, commercial complex, community- leaders.

• What is at the ‘Bottom of the Pyramid’ in waste management of Pune?

Learning Objectives

3

1. Look : (observe- converse- listen-record) door-to-door collection by waste pickers of SWaCH in specific ‘Prabhag’

2. Think ( in team) to understand, identify key features of managing waste of ‘Prabhag’

3. Engage with waste generators and waste pickers, PMC staff , neighborhood/community.

4. Plan for Action( in teams) to improve the situation and implement a plan ( a step in Action Learning)

5. Document and communicate your field experience qualitatively/ innovatively

Field-work Expectations

• Visit ( 4-6 times) point/s of waste collection

• Closely observe(shadowing) a waste picker’s operations

• Engage/converse with residents, stakeholders to know the strong and weak points of waste collection (in prabhag)

• Plan (in team) to persuade/ influence/intervene with operations , people behavior and attitude

Focus on ground reality

Identify and work with specific problem/issue like 1 segregation (wet/dry) of waste,2 health and income waste pickers, 3 disposal and composting of waste in homes, residential society, school, office, malls,4 recycling of waste initiatives, 5 disposal of sanitary waste

Focus Options :

• Social and economic status of waste pickers

• Costs and benefits of door to door waste collection

• Resistance from residents to segregate dry-wet , provide ‘sheds’ for sorting and composting,

• payment of fees to waste pickers

Your action initiatives options

7

• Creating awareness, persuade through conversations, listening, conducting meetings, posters, street play, Coordinating with SWaCh services like V-collect, E-collect

• Communicate to persuade and share with others the contribution ofwaste pickers in waste management like: collecting, sorting, recycling of waste for clean air and spaces, decentralized model of waste disposal.

Learning outcomes : assessment criteria

At the end of this project a student would learn and be assessed

• to generate qualitative data from the field, identify key issues in a prabag

• to take initiative to engage with real people ( waste generators and waste pickers) and real-specific problem/s

• to plan and engage as a team • to document & communicate field experiences creatively

• contribute to the work of collective of waste pickers (SWaCH)

Your resources

9

SWaCh facilitators in your prabhag, ( from office: Ravi, Suchismita)Experts from Bodhisattva Learning, ( Sushil, Isha, Amruta)faculty in-charge of project from your institute , team work Mentor from corporate Your motivation to engage with people and situationTime : Fifteen days

Everything is possible with enthusiasm ( Anon)

Wish you the best of success!

Questions

Your comments, clarification, commitment

Your benefits?