Waste warriors — the unsung heroes of Dharamsala’s waste management

Many feel that the garbage story ends the moment it is handed over to the door-to-door collection vans, but it is, in fact, the beginning of days’ journey for the Waste Warriors, a voluntary organisation, entrusted with the Herculean task of segregating it.

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Risking their health, these men and women spend their entire day sorting out the trash generated from various households and commercial establishments in the town of Dharamsala.

This organisation segregates the garbage coming from 13 of the 17 wards in Dharamsala Municipal Corporation and the select rural sites located in Barwala, Tang Narwana, Narwana Khas, Rakkar, Saukani da Kot and Bagni. It has a team of dedicated employees who reach their place of work under huge sheds to sort out dry garbage unloaded from vehicles reaching from the entire length and breadth of the town.

The land for this endeavour was provided by the MC on which the Waste Warriors built the sheds and are running the show. On any given day, the workers can be seen engrossed in the sorting job, which means physically placing it in different sacks for its final disposal-picking up, one piece at a time.

Neeru, hailing from Uttar Pradesh, who is here for the past over one year, looked satisfied as she gets paid in time. Arwind, Savita have ration cards for the affordable grains and are busy earning a livelihood on the banks of Charan Khud. ‘The organisation has the provision of the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) for us and we are happily making a 4.7 per cent contribution,” said all of them in one voice.

There are seven of them from Nagpur in Maharashtra and six from Bahraich in UP who do it all. They segregate the entire refuge into MLP, newspapers, papers/cardboards, millboards, cloth, PÈT, tetrapacks, carrybags, glass, hard plastic - HD+PVC, low-grade material, Raffia-PP, water, mud, food waste, LD and white paper which is sent to various places for recycling.

“The Waste Warriors came into being in Himachal Pradesh and has now started its operations in Uttarakhand as well. In addition to Dharamsala, they have set up units in Manali, Kasauli, Shimla and Bir,” said Vinay of Rakkar, coordinating the affairs here. According to him, it is a social cause and they get need-based funding through the corporate social responsibilty (CSR) to run the show.