Newsletter
This World Environment Day (2018), Become An Anti- Plastic Crusader
India is the global host for the 2018 World Environment Day (WED) which is being celebrated onJune 5th across the globe. This year’s WED is focussed on the theme of Plastic Pollution, an environmental challenge of recent origin, but one which is unprecedented in its scale and its impact on our planet.
Meet the Women of Bhalaswa
# WomenOfBhalawa was launched to celebrate the women living at Bhalaswa, one of the three Delhi landfills. Beginning on International Women's Day, these stories hoped to deconstruct the sole identity of these women as wastepickers, and to document a small snapshot of their human experiences which are defined by the many roles they play and many identities that they hold. The idea was to give them complete agency, give them as much control as possible to decide what they want to say and how they want to say it. As with any project, there is bias in translation and photography, but we hope that this is transcended by the connection established between the storyteller, and you the reader.
What is Zero Waste?
Zero Waste isn’t about not generating any waste in your home, office or school. It’s actually about ending waste in the entire material cycle because, for each product we use, about 87 times more waste has already been created in the production cycle. So yes, that completely useless and broken bucket you must throw away is the tip of the waste-berg.
Whose Waste Is It Anyway?
Chintan organised a brand audit of plastic waste collected over three days from more than 300 households of New Delhi preceding the World Environment Day on June 5th, 2018. The audit revealed some very interesting findings.
Plastic Upvaas
Plastic Upvaas is an initiative by Chintan and the Canadian High Commission and looks at involving citizens to fight plastic pollution by taking positive action. Through this campaign, we urge citizens to observe 12th December 2018 as the Plastic Upvaas - the day of ‘fasting’, or abstaining from single-use plastic. As a first step towards reducing their plastic consumption, we also urge them to pledge to give up at least one single-use plastic from their lifestyle. Will you take the Plastic Upvaas?
No Aadhar, No Education
In July this year, Somu, Sani and Vivek (L to R in the picture on the right) joined a formal school along with 213 other children (6-14 years) from the waste picking communities of Delhi and are a part of Chintan’s No Child in Trash programme. Studies suggest that there are at least 60,000 children who pick waste in the city. Currently Chintan is working with.... such children (..girls) to make them into happy, healthy and engaged citizen who have freedom to choose a dignified livelihood in their future years. However it isn’t all a happy story.
National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC)
Of the many learnings from the recent outcry around the National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) group housing redevelopment projects (GHRP), one was about the challenges of handling large quantities of waste generated in a dense cluster. Despite the progress made in handling waste in India, the question one might ask is this: how does densification impact our vulnerability to waste?
Multilayered packaging
Did you know that the packet of chips, biscuits or that namkeen you bought was not just plastic? That the glittery layer of silver inside was in fact aluminum foil?
Landfill on Yamuna bank
Recently, the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) obtained the nod of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) for two new landfills in the Yamuna river zone, or the ‘O’ zone of the Masterplan for Delhi. Any activity on the ‘O’ zone would mean building on the fragile Yamuna floodplains. Is this good for Delhi, or will it cause further harm?
Food Waste in India
Did you know that about 40 % of the food produced in India is wasted? Despite adequate food production, the UN has reported that about 190 million Indians remain undernourished. It is further estimated that the value of food wastage in India is around ₹92,000 crores per annum. These are some bleak statistics, but they should help us realise the magnitude of the problem of food waste, as much as inequity, in India. The world recognises that no truly sustainable and developed country can exist without tackling the issue of food waste, and while the challenge in front of us may be monumental, some steps need to be taken sooner than others.
The Story Of Your Waste
The NDMC newsletter is a quarterly newsletter for the residents of New Delhi Municipal Council. It gives information about Chintan and Safai Sena’s work in the NDMC area in waste collection, their services and helpline numbers. It also introduces a waste picker to the local community and talks about his life and work.
The Story Of Your Waste (Hindi)
The EDMC newsletter is a quarterly newsletter for the residents of Kishan Kunj-Ward 221 and Usmanpur (Brahmpuri)-Ward 254, East Delhi Municipal Corporation. It gives information about Chintan and Safai Sena’s work in the EDMC area in waste collection, their services and helpline numbers. It also introduces a waste picker to the local community and talks about his life and work.
Jahaan-e-Kabadi
Jahan-e-Kabadi is our newsletter about the world of waste recyclers. It means the world of the recycler, in Urdu, a heady language that developed in South Asia between 1200-1800 AD, with Persian, Arabic and Turkish influences. We've chosen an Urdu title because its own diverse origins remind us that it is possible to create a common voice and language replete with the richness of many partnerships.
No Child In Trash
Among the hundreds who depend on Delhi's Ghazipur landfill for a living are 203 families of waste pickers. The community comprises mostly of migrants with near-zero support from the local authorities. They live in jhuggis (shanties) at the edge of the landfill with almost every able member of the family collecting or sorting waste. Earlier this year the slums at Ghazipur were gutted in a fire leaving very little to rescue. Chintan through its donation drives helped to restore and salvage as much as was possible.
No Child In Trash
On 13 September 2011, five-year-old Rani Rai died of typhoid, complicated by respiratory disease. She was a student of Chintan’s non-formal education centre at the Ghazipur landfill. She had joined the Bal Aangan programme for four- and five-year olds, and often spoke of her wish to grow up and be a teacher or a nurse.
Safainama
Safai Nama is a newsletter published by Chintan in collaboration with Safai Sena which comprises of waste pickers and recyclers in Delhi. This newsletter is published once in two months.
No Child in Trash
Close to one per cent of India’s urban population are believed to be involved in recycling. Of them, 15 lakh are wastepickers, or ragpickers, at the very bottom of the pyramid of waste handlers. Their job involves collecting recyclable trash like soiled plastic, broken glass and torn metal cans from public and private garbage and open dumping sites.
Jahaan-e-Kabadi
Jahan-e-Kabadi is our newsletter about the world of waste recyclers. It means the world of the recycler, in Urdu, a heady language that developed in South Asia between 1200-1800 AD, with Persian, Arabic and Turkish influences. We've chosen an Urdu title because its own diverse origins remind us that it is possible to create a common voice and language replete with the richness of many partnerships.