Swachh Bharat Mission Echoes Sterilisation Campaign Of 70s

A new book exposes the lacunae in the way India manages its waste and recommends changes in practices and attitudes toward waste. ROBIN JEFFREY and ASSA DORON,authors of the book, speak to SWATI SINGH SAMBYAL on the layered challenges of managing solid waste

- Swati Singh Sambyal

Why have you named the book Waste of a Nation?

You can read the title in number of ways. You can say the book is about discarded materials in India. If you read the title the way people say "what a waste of effort?" it seems to suggest "what a waste of nationhood and its potential!" The title also seems to include the human factor, asking whether those people, who deal with waste, are also despicable and "waste". It is for the readers to think and decide.

Where did the idea of this book come from and where all did it take you?

In 2013, we came up with a book Cell Phone Nation where we documented grassroots economies of repair and recycling around mobile phones.

While working on the book, we realised that there is a hidden economy of waste recovery. High-value materials like gold, silver and copper are reclaimed from discarded electronics by grinding, burning, pulverising and treating them chemically. While these dangerous practices are rampant, wider questions about the politics of waste, including dumping of toxic material in Third World countries and the cultural and social dimensions of waste management and public sanitation began to emerge. There was a need to understand India’s complex relationship with waste. From Kolkata to Thiruvananthapuram, we visited several towns and cities across 14 states to learn from those who deal with waste in different ways.

What do you think are the lacunae in the way India manages municipal solid waste?