My first steps to Social Change
When I was in 7th grade, I came across the Innoventure challenge by IntelligencePlus. Innoventure is an ideation and entrepreneurship challenge where students are given problem statements and must come up with solutions to those problems. Innoventure has different rounds, each had unique problems and test aspects of creative thinking, idea generation, creative problem solving, empathy, etc
Let me share the details about all the 3 rounds:
Round1 is Creative Thinking Challenge: Subjective Challenge Statements based question papers on creativity, Ideation, problem-solving and critical thinking. It's a 40-minute exam that stimulates your creative thinking, unlike the usual academic exams. You can explore your ways through questions like “If you could talk to trees, what do you think they might say?”, I imagine a world of my own and answer all these questions.
Round 2 is Creative Communication Challenge: This is a telephonic interview where questions will be asked to understand communication skills, decision making, and thinking skills in a time limit of 5 to 10 minutes.
I practiced a few mock-ups by trying to answer a few of the sample questions in unique and creative ways on the spot rather than a standard approach. Imagine a question “What will you do if you are the last person on earth?”, keep thinking about your answer.
Round 3 is the final round, National Finale where students are given the problem on the final day or a month before depending on the grade. Problems faced in the real world are given to the students and we must come up with unique solutions and then present our solution to the jury. This round was my favorite round as I loved solving problems, applying design thinking principles, and coming up with ideas. I’ll cover Design Thinking principles in one of my next blogs.
The competition was overall a wonderful and new experience for me and I really enjoyed every round. In Grade 7, I was able to qualify all the rounds and selected for the final round secured the first runner-up position out of 40 finalists.
Fast forward 2 years and in my 9th grade also I got selected till the national finals. For Grade 9 students, the problem statement is given almost 4 weeks in advance and students have to use Design Thinking Principles to find a unique solution.
The problem statement given this year for one of the sets of students was to “Understand the problem faced by government sanitation and maintenance workers and I decided to study the pain points of garbage collectors/waste pickers. Since I was based out of Bangalore, I decided to concentrate on just Bangalore to start with.
Initially, I was overwhelmed with the problem given to me as I had no idea how to approach it and no experience with social changes. Eventually, I decided to eat the frog and start researching online and fortunately, my father had some research work from 2011 on garbage collection which gave me a lot of vital information and insights about garbage collection and the state of the garbage collection workers.
I then came across an NGO named Hasiru Dala who I spoke with as part of my field research. I gained further insights about the informal sector from the NGO and Ms. Indha from Hasiru Dala told me about the garbage collection process carried out in Bangalore.
The next step was obviously to extend my research in my apartment complex and decided to meet the Garbage processing team. I spoke with many other individuals from the garbage sector and got to know their problems from the discussion points.
The field research had opened my eyes and was a whole new experience to me, to know the hardships people had to face to make a living. The stench, the working hours, the hardships faced were just the tip of the iceberg of the problems faced by these workers and after that, I started to work on the solutions, not for the competition but to try to make a difference in their lives and help them.
I found my new self, who wanted to make an impact, I even looked at a few Coursera courses to get some initial understanding about Social Entrepreneurship.
Let me take you through this journey of self-awareness and finding solutions that can bring value from the garbage industry and in the process improve the lives of these garbage collectors.
Field Research
Research had been conducted at different levels and problems and insights were gained. Each level had its own problems and those are discussed further in the research.
The collection of garbage and levels identified based on the research are shown below.
i) BBMP Contractor
ii) BBMP Workers
iii) Apartment Garbage Collection Team
iv) Waste Pickers & Scrap Dealers
v) Hasiru Dala NGO
Face to Face interviews conducted
BBMP worker: (Sajid)
→ Slum-dwellers not cooperating with segregation
→ Waste was thrown on roads despite BBMP collectors collecting the waste regularly
→ Slum-dwellers burning the garbage adding to environmental pollution
Contractor / Sub-Contractor: Y. Reddy: Sub-contractor for Varthur.
→ Resources Management Issues: unplanned Staff Leaves due to illness. As a result, need to maintain a bench staff in case of unplanned leaves
→Late Payments — Payments not received regularly from contractors/BBMP
→ Vehicle Maintenance due to corrosive chemicals used in wet garbage collection reduces the life of vehicles.
→ Low bargaining power, receives a small percentage of the contracted cost.
Apartment garbage team workers: (Gauramma, Lakshmi, Balajyoti)
→ Challenging working conditions.
→ Low income
→ Inability to meet children’s education(mainly after 10th) and lack of education funds
Hasiru Dala (NGO) works for the well-being of marginalized waste pickers in Bengaluru and also brings in sustainable practices in solid waste management.
→ Waste pickers are providing an important service and yet paid meagrely.
→ Since 2016, Bengaluru municipal authorities have involved waste pickers and other informal waste collectors in the door to door collection of dry waste and operations of Dry Waste Collection Centres (DWCC)
→ Most of the existing informal and formal recycling units:
i) homes of waste-pickers used as personal sorting places,
ii) Dry Waste Collection Centres,
iii) Scrap Shops
iv) Small Recycling factories
are functioning out of crumbling infrastructure, have less than fair remuneration, and no safety net for the workers.
→ The strength of the given system is its skilled workforce and ability to collect, sort, and aggregate large amounts of plastic material in a short span of time.
Waste pickers
→ Have irregular pay.
→ Sanitation problems.
→ Poor infrastructure in DWCC and most of these centers are closed post-pandemic due to lack of manpower and resources
Scrap Dealers: V. Murugan-scrap dealer in Munnekolala
→ Impacted due to Covid-19, could not generate income and had to go to hometown.
→ Due to lack of education and unawareness of any other work impacted more during a pandemic.
→ Not considered a dignified job.
→ Not aware of different Medical schemes made available by the government of India.
Solution Proposal
Based on the research conducted, these are the solutions proposed at different levels. I have provided three proposals: an awareness campaign, a Policy, and a new product idea.
Spreading awareness
Slums
This can be done by NGOs and active social workers who can converse in the local language with the locals living in slums.
They can ask the slums to segregate their waste and explain the harmful effects of burning waste.
BBMP can provide bins at the household level to encourage segregation and pay houses that segregate small amounts to promote this habit throughout the slums.
Schools / Offices
From the primary level, students should be made aware of the harmful effects of single-use plastic and economically viable options available
Awareness programs can be conducted in schools/offices to learn to reduce waste
The key message as part of this Solution is Reduce & Reuse. In the future, it’s necessary that people are so aware that they voluntarily learn to say no to plastics and adopt eco-friendly substitutes.
Vocational Centers for Informal Sectors
These centers can upskill the workers in the following ways:
i) Vocational Training
ii) English Speaking Classes
iii) Solid waste management Workshop
This will help these workers to find another job as their job is 5–6 hrs. Also possibility of working in Recycling and DWCC centers.
Centers will be equipped with smart TVs to ensure an Online / Remote teaching facility.
Create funds provided by citizens and donations to assist these workers for Emergency and Education related funds.
Enable these workers to uplift themselves and their families by making more money and start a business of their own if one is skilled at such a level.
Public-Private Partnership
The garbage sector is a profitable sector where various materials and recyclable products can be produced if modern technology and infrastructure are introduced.
The government can set up these factories but lacks the capital which can be infused by private individuals.
Interested private individuals can enter into long-term contracts with the government for the output produced from the garbage segregation(new products and recycled products) at reasonable/fair rates.
The capital thus obtained can be used to set up factories.
The workforce of these factories can consist of garbage collection workers in the informal sector thus improving the lives of the workers in the informal sector.
With the training provided in Vocational centers can use the skills learned to take on higher position jobs in the factories and at some point can become supervisory positions.
Both the above solutions are targeted to make the Garbage sector profitable and respectable for the informal sector, providing means to bring a difference in their lives and in turn bringing profitability to both private investors and government.
Scented face masks
This was a personal project of mine that I wish to enhance in the future
Scented face masks can be provided to garbage collectors which will stop the foul smell to an extent and improve the working conditions for these workers drastically.
The mask is a normal mask with an extra scented layer, right before the cotton filter pocket.
Mask-making machines range from a price of 15–20 lakhs and can produce 60–80 masks per minute.
This idea focuses on providing hygienic working conditions for these workers and gradually may include other protective gear like gloves, shoes, raincoats produced in the factories as by-products.
During my whole journey with Innoventure, I have learned many valuable lessons. I found this journey to be tough but also a fun one where I experienced new things outside of my school curriculum.
You can find my detailed presentation here.
