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While the entire state was on alert in\nSeptember last year due to an upsurge in dengue, ASHA workers recorded no such cases in Bansa, thanks to the panchayat's concerted efforts to manage solid and liquid waste efficiently

Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh: “I would want my village to have a hospital,”\nShubha Devi was quick to respond when asked about the changes she hoped to see\nin Bansa. Devi’s demand seemed reasonable\nconsidering that the nearest Community Health Centre (CHC) is 15 km away at block\nheadquarters Mallawan.

One has to change three rickshaws to reach there, but\nservice is almost unavailable after evening. It becomes even more crucial in\ntimes like last September, when Uttar Pradesh was put on alert mode due to an\nupsurge in dengue cases.

While the caseload in the state went over 13,000\nin mid-October, Bansa in Hardoi district with 950 families and 5,062\ninhabitants had no dengue patients, as recorded by government healthcare\nstaff in the block.

(Above) CHC in Mallawan, Hardoi (below) A picture of Dr Sanjay Singh (Photo - Aishwarya Tripathi, 101Reporters)

“While our normal outpatient footfall in a day is 200\nto 250, it went up to 500 in October with 90% cases related to fever. These\nwere tested for dengue using rapid test kits and the blood samples from\npositive ones were sent for the confirmation test to Hardoi District Hospital,”\nsaid Dr Sanjay Singh, Superintendent, Mallawan\nCHC.

The CHC recorded 14 confirmed dengue cases, none\nfrom Bansa. All the six Accredited Social Health Activists\n(ASHAs) in the village panchayat conducted door-to-door monitoring. “We visited\nevery home under our chetra [area] educating people about the precautionary\nmeasures. We enquired if anyone had fever. Thankfully, no dengue cases were\nfound,” Vijaylaxmi (35), an ASHA since 2012, told 101Reporters. She has 950 people from 250 houses of\nBansa under her careful watch.

However, there were people like Mukesh Kumar (40), who consulted a jholachap (quack) and\nvisited a private lab in Mallawan to get his Complete Blood Count (CBC) checked\nwhen he fell ill with fever and body ache. While showing his CBC report, he\npointed at the 1.1 lakh platelet count highlighted in bold, signalling a low\ncount.

When enquired, Dr Sanjay said CBC was not a test\nfor dengue. “The platelet count can fluctuate even in other kinds of fever and\ncannot be used to detect dengue,” he said.

Elaborating further, he said cleanliness and\nmanagement of stagnant water could be a huge factor in controlling vector-borne\ndiseases like dengue and malaria. According to a 2015 study\nconducted in rural and urban Kolkata, household waste such as plastic and glass\nserves as a breeding ground for Aedes mosquitoes, a vector for dengue.

(Above)A resident of Tikapurava going to dispose the waste (below) picture of ASHA worker Vijaylaxmi (Photo - Aishwarya Tripathi, 101Reporters)

Addressing\ntrash troubles

What made Bansa stand out was the rigorous waste\nmanagement strategies put in place by the village panchayat, which includes a\nwell-connected drainage system, dustbins to individuals and community waste\nbins, constructing a waste recycling centre and installing two incinerators for\nsanitary waste. From April to July last year, Bansa Resource\nRecovery Centre collected 13.50 tonnes of waste, including eight tonnes of wet\nwaste, 5.3 tonnes of dry waste and 0.3 tonnes of sanitary waste.

Launched on October 2, 2014, Swachh Bharat Mission was implemented as a nationwide campaign to\neliminate open defecation in rural areas by October 2, 2019. In the campaign's second phase, 34 village panchayats, including Bansa, in Mallawan block were\nchosen to reinforce Open defecation-free (ODF) behaviours and focus on\nproviding interventions for safe management of solid and liquid waste.

However, the real change began only\nafter Sampoornanand ‘Poonam’ Singh became the gram pradhan in May 2021. On the eighth day of every month, Sampoornanand\nholds an open gram sabha to interact\nwith the community. Waste management was discussed in one such meeting, and people\nagreed to his idea of a clean village.

In 2021, Bansa got a one-time Central fund of Rs 30 lakh under the Swachh Bharat Mission, which facilitated\nthe construction of a drainage system and leach pit. Apart from dustbins,\nincinerators and recycling centre, a greywater filtering system was funded by\nit.

After setting up the required\nfacilities, door-to-door waste collection began in Bansa six months ago. “We give\nthe dry waste to gadiwala, and dump wet waste in ghoor present in our households to turn\nit into manure. Earlier, we burnt dry\nwaste in our backyards,” said Shubha Devi (45), who had come out on hearing the signature\njingle, gadi wala aaya, ghar se kachra nikal, play out near her home at 8 am.

“Scattered plastic wrappers on village\nroads and piles of garbage stacked in gullies [ravines] were common sights earlier. The drainage system was\npoorly connected, often leading to water stagnation. All these are connected to\neverything from health to environment. But it took a while to make people aware,”\nSampoornanand told 101Reporters.

(Above)Shubha Devi and (below) Rajshree outside the house (Photo - Aishwarya Tripathi, 101Reporters)

Two lanes away from Shubha’s house\nis a Harijan basti where Sri Devi (50) lives. She attested that for 37 years since her marriage, door-to-door waste collection or cleaning of drains has not happened. Drainage water used to flood the area during rains, submerging the adjacent plots. Fortunately, Sri Devi's house was always spared due to the elevation.

\"Roadside litter was a common sight here. People mostly resorted to open burning of waste. Things began to improve after the present pradhan came into power,” Sri Devi told 101Reporters. She is aware of the benefits of cleanliness as her daughter Shivani Singh is an Auxiliary Nurse Midwife in Malihabad district, Uttar Pradesh.

Twenty five Scheduled Caste families live at Tikapurva. Rajshree(35) recalled the times when she had to wade through floodwaters to reach the handpump. “I have to go to the hand pump three to four times to fetch potable water. Earlier, it was gruesome during the rains. Water up till here!” she said, pointing at her calves. The issue was fully resolved only after the construction of proper connecting drains.

Since she was married here, she does not recall anything done with regards to waste collection or drains. “All these are new things. The pradhan had come to tell us that waste must be collected in bins. However, the drains here are cleaned in large intervals as compared to Bansa. Bansa looks much cleaner than our locality,” Rajshree said.

Though not content with the cleanliness standards in Tikapurva, Reeta Devi (19) acknowledged that flooding of the area had been addressed three years ago. “I think this might be good for my children's health as well because stagnant water breeds mosquitoes, which cause diseases. But I am not too sure why the waste must be segregated,” Reeta, a mother of two toddlers, told 101Reporters.

Reeta Devi, a mother of two toddlers (Photo - Aishwarya Tripathi, 101Reporters)

To Rajshree, waste collection seemed futile because her family did not generate any dry waste. She also felt the community bins to gather dry waste lying in the streets were placed far from her place. Household waste collection happens in Tikapurva, and Rajshree has individual bins to dispose of household waste.

Heeralal (75 years) of the same area also claimed, “There is hardly any dry waste.”

A research paper by Indian Institute of\nScience Education and Research, Mohali, cites underreporting and open\nburning as the two largest challenges for sustainable waste management in\nIndia, calling out the missing observational data regarding waste generation in\nrural belts of India.

(Left) Heeralal with the community bins (Photo - Aishwarya Tripathi, 101Reporters)

“Official government data deny the\nexistence of rural waste generation in India. The rural data gap makes it\ndifficult to construct accurate open waste burning emission inventories and\nplan waste management infrastructure,” it added.

Drains in Tikapurva, Bansa (Photo - Aishwarya Tripathi, 101Reporters)

The bumpy road

Better penetration of Information,\nEducation and Communication (IEC) techniques is the need of the hour in Bansa. “We\nperformed nukkad nataks [street\nplays], put up posters and wall slogans to boost awareness about solid and\nliquid waste segregation, but IEC is a persisting challenge. We still need more\npenetration to educate people about waste generation and its segregation,”\nNeeraj Kumar, former additional development officer, Bansa, told 101Reporters. He was transferred from\nthe post last July.

“Monitoring the work is a challenge.\nThis is a big village with six majras [hamlets]. We still lack\nsufficient infrastructure for collection, segregation and for employing enough\nstaff,” said Vivek Singh, who assists Sampoornanand in managing\nsubsidiary tasks of the panchayat.

(Above) Waste segregation process (below) picture of a sweeper (Photo - Aishwarya Tripathi, 101Reporters)

“We need a minimum of eight safai karmis to cover the entire panchayat. In 35 bylanes of\nBansa, every drain gets cleaned once in 15 days because we do not have enough\nmanpower,” Sampoornanand informed.

Safai Karmis in the community (Photo - Aishwarya Tripathi, 101Reporters)

There are two government-employed\nsanitation staff, but the numbers are grossly insufficient. Anurag Kumar (19) and Vikas Kumar (20) have been hired by the\npradhan for Rs 9,000 per month. Both belong to the Scheduled Caste and are\ngenerational sanitation workers. “We tried looping in people from other\ncommunities by repetitively addressing it in the gram sabha meetings but to no avail,” Vivek said.

At the recycling centre, Anurag and\nVikas sort the collected dry waste into plastic, glass and metal to store them\nin designated compartments for selling later. “The revenue generated is routed back to the panchayat fund and\nutilised for improving waste management strategies,” Vivek said. However, this amount is not significant at present.

The Swachhta fund has been fully\nexhausted, Sampoornananda informed. However, under the 15th\nFinance Commission Report, 30% of the Central grant to be “disbursed to\nrural local bodies shall be earmarked for sanitation and maintenance of ODF\nstatus, and this should include management and treatment of household waste,\nand human excreta and faecal sludge management in particular.”

“This is not enough. The maintenance\nof the systems in place also requires funds. We are allowed to pay a maximum of\nRs 6,000 to helpers from the Gram Panchayat Development Fund. The additional Rs\n3,000 is paid out of my pocket,” he detailed.

Furthermore, presently only one\ncollection e-vehicle is present. “We are trying to make available another\ncollection vehicle to improve\nefficiency,” Vivek said.

Despite 77.7% of the state's population being rural as per the 2011 Census, the annual report by the Central\nPollution Control Board, New Delhi, has no substantial data regarding the\nstate’s rural waste management. In the report, Uttar Pradesh ranked 26th\namong all states and union territories in terms of its environmental\nperformance pertaining to solid waste management.

“Mallawan block has 54 village panchayats\nand while holding meetings with gram pradhans,\nwe often showcase Bansa as an example to solve the waste crisis in villages,” Awdhesh Kumar, Assistant Development Officer, Mallawan block, told 101Reporters.

Bansa is amongst the three shortlisted\nvillage panchayats from Uttar Pradesh for the national level Swachhta Puruskar. The\nresults are awaited.

Edited by Rekha Pulinnoli

Cover Photo - ASHA Vijaylaxmi talking to the people in Bansa (Photo - Aishwarya Tripathi, 101Reporters)

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