While the performance of FC Goa in the
inaugural Indian Super League on the pitch is offering little cheer to its fans
in Goa, off the pitch these fans seem to have won many hearts. Reference is
made to the cleaning drive by a handful of young fans which began soon after FC
Goa’s second home game against Atlético de Kolkata and who posted pictures of
their activities online. The post having gone viral on Facebook, the next home
game against Delhi Dynamos saw a crowd of more than fifty joining in the
efforts to clean the Fatorda stadium of the trash. While some linked it to the
story of the efforts of Japanese fans cleaning up after the game during the World
Cup in Brazil, and the ‘Swachh Bharat’ campaign recently launched, this ‘shot’
at cleaning received good press coverage in Goa as well as national and online
portals.
Amongst many of the photos that were
posted online, there is one that particularly caught my eye. This was a picture
showing a large portion of the trash that was accumulated. Consisting largely
of FC Goa banners and festoons, and soft drink cups, this picture gave a sense
of how much trash was generated at Fatorda during the match against Delhi Dynamos.
This image will be the basis on which I shall proceed in my reflections. While
it is no doubt commendable and laudable that a handful of youngsters (like me)
have taken leadership and indeed made others also join them in their efforts
for cleanliness, the celebration and
reassurances that followed the drive tend to overlook crucial issues that are
very much related to the issue of cleanliness and civic sense. This column
would like to draw attention to some of these issues in the hope that a better
understanding may be achieved.
What I would like to point out is that such
an act of individual sacrifices, though useful in some ways, only goes to
reassure us that something is being done to address a larger systemic problem. The
issue of garbage is not simply about one person littering and hence the problem
cannot be approached from a position of guilt: I litter therefore I am
responsible for my trash and also that of others. The systemic problem that I
refer to can best be represented by the picture that I discussed above. The
question that needs to be asked generally of cleaning drives is where will all
this trash go? It is by asking such a question that we can confront the
obstinate problem of effective garbage management and disposal. The
reassurances that such cleaning drives allow us to feel, now are exposed for the
problems that they hold within them.
As with many of the cleanliness drives,
including the ‘Swachh Bharat’ campaign, what missed the mark yet again were the
people or workers who actually dispose our garbage. To their credit, the youngsters
at Fatorda did try to empathize with the plight of the workers there, after
they realized how backbreaking and thankless their job was. The stark reality
is that these workers are ill-paid. Most likely the workers engaged in managing
garbage are hired on contract basis which allows for the most vulgar flouting
of labour laws. The worst form of such violations can be seen in the manner in
which manual scavenging is allowed with impunity in India. Ill-paid and
stigmatized due to the caste-based occupation, these workers sometimes pay a
hefty price, either with their actual lives, or through life-long suffering
from diseases such as TB. So while we applaud the persons who took it upon
themselves to clean the stadium at Fatorda, the debate never goes any further to
secure the rights of workers who actually have to deal with trash on a daily
basis.
Apart from the game against Delhi
Dynamos, the amount of trash also generated after
the game against Atlético de Kolkata was sizeable, “at least half a truck full of garbage” in the words of
one of the members of this group. This brings me to the next issue of how the
very things that we enjoy – largely driven by an excessively consumerist logic
– itself is generating so much trash. Rather than thinking of ways to clean the
trash that gets generated everyday (though it is also very important), one
needs to also seriously think about how to reduce the very generation of this
trash on a daily basis. Ultimately, no matter how much we clean our houses, our
neighbourhoods, our streets, and our stadiums, there is absolutely no mechanism
to deal with the accumulated trash except to dump it in a garbage dump to rot.
This
should ideally raise the question of what types or kinds of actions taken in
relation to the problem of garbage should reassure us as a society. To be
honest, very little has been done. The
problem is that the debate in Goa hardly ever goes beyond demanding cleanliness
either from the individual or the civic authorities, or blaming the defunct garbage
disposal technology in various landfills in Goa. We fail to recognize that this
systemic malaise has a variety of people involved it in, not confined to a
middle-class, urban, and upper-caste demographic. If our society feels that an
occasional, well-intentioned act of cleaning by people who are not engaged in
the occupation of cleaning be celebrated, this is adding insult to injury to
the millions who toil everyday without getting any recognition.
In trying to attempt something
well-intentioned like cleaning the stadium at Fatorda, there is the fear that
we might end up understanding the problem divorced from its specific context
and realities. Rather than suggesting that some kind of high-end machinery be
immediately set up to deal with the systemic failures of garbage management, we
should first think about putting in place worker-friendly labour laws. Laws
that are sensitive to issues of caste, gender, health care, insurance, and
other benefits for people engaged in garbage disposal and management. Perhaps
the good folks who lent a hand to the workers at Fatorda could also lend their
voice to this.
(First published in O Heraldo, dt: 12 November, 2014)
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