Background:

As cities expand, the villages which are on the outskirts get integrated into the municipal limits. However, this integration is mostly ad-hoc leading to inadequate delivery of basic services. The city of Gurugram has many urban villages which are part of the municipal corporation limits but do not get the same attention of the authorities as the more urbanized part of the city for providing basic amenities like roads, water, electricity or solid and liquid waste management,

Objectives:

The project was initiated to build a sustainable decentralized waste management system in Sikanderpur. The primary aim was to implement 3 - way source segregation, establish a composting unit for biodegradable waste, increase income of waste workers through access to well-segregated dry waste and increase active participation of the citizens and sensitize the community members. 

The team worked closely with children and local influencers to make them change agents. 

Ensuring visual cleanliness through wall arts and beautification of dumping sites was carried out which also resulted in greater buy-in from the community. Exposure visits for the local community leaders helped in enhancing their understanding of waste management and made them take more ownership of supporting the project objectives. 

As most urban villages are home to the migrant workers, they end up having a lot of floating population. As part of our intervention special efforts were made to onboard them into the waste segregation and collection process. A SOP was developed for the segregation and collection process for multi-unit dwellings.