Imagine opening one of your drawers on a typical office day and discovering to your horror a used sanitary napkin lying there. This is a scene in a promotional video created for a better sanitary waste management system in Pune. Its message is clear: it would be unpleasant for you to discover a blood-soaked sanitary pad in your workplace so why force waste pickers to undergo this?
Sanitary waste, such as condoms, diapers, pads, tampons, bandages and syringes should not be mixed wet or dry waste since it is unsafe for waste workers to handle without adequate protection. In 2016, the Ministry of Environment and Forests issued rules for householders to place their sanitary waste in a separate container. However, how many of us are aware of this rule, let alone practice it? Hence in a fight for the dignity and health of waste pickers, this campaign was launched by a cooperative of independent waste workers called Solid Waste Collection and Handling (SWaCH) along with Kagad Kach Patra Kastakari Panchayat (KKPKP) and Rotary Pune. The campaign is aptly titled The Red Dot Campaign with the key message to wrap sanitary waste in newspaper or a paper bag and draw a red dot over it to alert the waste pickers of its content. Instead of being forced to go through 20 tonnes of sanitary waste on a daily basis, SWaCH workers can promptly segregate them to be treated separately.
Thanks to the media and social media outreach, it garnered great response from the public: enthusiastic people volunteered to paint the red dot and write thought-provoking messages on SWaCH’s disposal carts. Aside from the video, there were radio interviews and merchandise such a cheap disposable bags made by old waste workers, shirts, mugs, and posters to spread awareness. This campaign offered information for more sustainable alternatives such as a reusable cloth diapers and pads or the silicone menstrual cup, opening up conversations about menstruation, a subject which is usually treated as taboo in India. Not many of us are aware of these alternatives nor know where to purchase them; it would therefore be useful to locate and promote such enterprises in Chennai. If supermarkets and medicine shops kept information pamphlets and stocks of these, surely you and I will be more likely to try to make the shift.
There is a widespread tendency to equate Chennai with a more conservative mindset. The idea of replicating Pune’s shock effect with videos of bloody sanitary napkins and sermons about such taboo subjects would alienate people rather than invite them to rethink the way they handle their sanitary waste. But it is important to realise how, if we wish Chennai to come up with an effective waste management system, we cannot neglect sanitary waste. Otherwise we would head towards a situation like in Trivandrum where, despite its near-perfect zero-waste system, residents burn this waste in their private spaces. All their good waste management practices are almost undone with this since deadly dioxins and furans are released into the atmosphere impacting both the environment and public health adversely.
We must not forget that while Pune’s social media outreach has garnered a lot of support, it is the door-to-door conversations by SWaCH waste pickers that really brought about a change in people’s practices. What made Pune’s waste pickers so persuasive was the training they received in exchange for benefits such as educational loans and health insurance. Over a period of a year, they were taught the health consequences of their job as well as given communication training just a month before the campaign began.
Before the Red Dot campaign, Pune had one that targeted the producers of sanitary waste products to come up with more sustainable designs. Using the same slap-in-the-face technique, the waste pickers had collected all the sanitary waste and sent it back to the producers to drive home the point. The producers, however, failed to take any actionable steps. Why should moneymaking businesses feel inclined to change their practices unless public pressure demands so? This failed attempt however raises an important point: both the supply and consumption side needs to be addressed equally.
Next time you casually toss aside some sanitary waste, take a minute to remind yourself how you would feel to stumble upon this unpleasant surprise in your workplace. If the very thought of this makes you cringe then all the more reason you should reach out for a newspaper and a red pen. I know I will.
Add new comment