GHMC Bags Swachchata Excellency Award Again

The Swachh Bharat Mission today announced the Swachchata Excellency Award for the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.

The GHMC, which caters to a 10 lakh population, is the only metropolitan city in the country to have been given this award.

GHMC Commissioner Dana Kishore, Mayor Bonthu Rammohan and Deputy Mayor Baba Fasiuddin expressed happiness over the city getting this award, too, within ten days of getting the ODF+ award from the Swachh Bharat Mission.

The Commissioner said that the sanitation sector offered growing livelihood opportunities for Community Based Organizations (CBOs), and that many Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) were making noteworthy efforts to engage CBOs in sanitation- and solid waste managment-related works, leading to sustainable incomes and dignified sources of livelihoods for them.

The Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) Swachhata Excellence Awards were instituted by the MoHUA to recognize the Area Level Federations (ALFs), City Level Federations (CLFs) and Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) working towards achieving sanitation outcomes for their communities and promoting dignified livelihoods in the sanitation sector.

The GHMC was selected under the category of Cities With Over One Million Population, for engaging community-based organizations and informal waste pickers in sanitation and solid waste management. The GHMC identified unemployed, semi-skilled women and SHGs from every ward and enrolled them as Swachh CRPs (Community Resource Persons) / Swachh Dhooths. These CRPs were trained and allotted 600 households each to promote source segregation and ensure that all the respective households gave segregated waste to the garbage collector.

The GHMC replaced tricycles with 2,500 Swachh Auto Tippers (SATs), and these vehicles were allotted to the existing and eligible (with a valid driving licence) rickshaw pullers, rag pickers etc for effective door-to-door collection of garbage. The down-payments for the SATs for SC/ST was 10% of the vehicle cost, and for OBCs was 20% of the vehicle cost, payable by the applicant. The remaining amount is paid by the GHMC with 9.3% interest through monthly EMIs.

The rag-pickers act as drivers-cum-owners of the SATs, and their family members help them collect the waste from the households. Each SAT is tied up with 500 to 600 households, and collects Rs 50 per month as user charges. The rag pickers obtain additional income of Rs 150 to 200 per day selling recyclables collected separately during the door-to-door collection, to DRCCs at transfer stations.