Narrative:
Situation before the initiative began:
Accumulation of garbage and incidents of open urination were reported at bus terminus and Gandhi Market Complex. Sweeping was carried out once a day. There were also complaints that the private contractor who maintained pay and use toilets used to collect higher charges. He was not cleaning toilets all through the day.
Establishment of Priorities:
As the bus terminuses and Gandhi Market Complex are the places where there is large turnout of visitors, City Corporation decided to give priority to these public places for 24 hours x 365 days cleaning. Due to heavy turnout, the roads around these public utilities also required to be cleaned all through the day, for over all improvement of sanitary scenario. There was felt need to stop open urination at vulnerable points at Central Bus stand. There was need to redress to the complaints of collection of higher charges from users by the previous private contractor. It was decided to handover the task to an NGO, as such organisations normally work on non-commercial basis.
Formulation of objectives and strategies:
A team of officers was constituted. After brain storming session, it was decided to hand over the task to NGO who has to perform the task by engaging minimum of 250 workers. The salaries to the workers and other incidental charges have to be met by the NGO. It was permitted to collect the user charges from Pay & Use toilets to incur the above expenditure. The NGO has to create awareness against open urination and also to improve the sanitary habits of the users. The strategy was also aimed to improve the level of cleanliness in these public places and surrounding areas to the greater satisfaction of the users.
Mobilisation of Resources:
The strategy adopted by City Corporation is unique one, as it did not involve any financial outgo for the City Corporation. If any service is outsourced, the employer has to pay the required charges to the contractor. However, in this strategy the income from the pay & use toilet cum bathrooms is sufficient for the NGO to employ 250 workers on contract basis as required by the City Corporation and also to meet the other related expenditure as electricity charges for bathroom cum toilets, consumables such as bleaching powder, phenol, soap oil and provision of uniforms to workers, etc. NGO, which was selected on competitive bidding basis, is also paying Rs.0.43 million to City Corporation per year. The NGO is permitted to collect Re.1/- from the users for using the toilet for urination. The users have to pay Rs.2/- for using the toilet cum bathrooms either for bath purpose or for toilet purpose. The collection is expected in the range of Rs.15,000 to Rs.20,000/- per day. The NGO has to spend nearly Rs.5.50lakhs to meet the salary of the staff and other incidental charges per month.
Process:
The new strategy has to be approved by the Council of the City Corporation. When the matter was placed before the Council, there was doubt expressed by some of the councillors regarding the viability of the strategy, as this is a new approach. The matter was deliberated in detail and the Council agreed to approve the strategy. After completing the tender formalities, the task was handed over to the NGO on 15.8.2005. City Corporation’s Sanitary Workers who were earlier stationed in these places for the purpose of cleaning have to be withdrawn and posted to other areas. This was a matter of concern as the workers who were working in these areas for years together were feeling slightly displaced. Based on their request, they were accommodated in the areas preferably nearer to their residential areas. The other stakeholders are shopkeepers and vegetable vendors. The NGO’s representatives contacted each and every shopkeeper personally and requested them to adopt certain better sanitary habits like avoiding open throwing of garbage outside the shop, using buckets to store garbage, segregation of garbage, etc. Most of the bus drivers and conductors who are also stakeholders used to go for open urination. The NGO, offered the toilet cum bathrooms on free use basis to these drivers and conductors to prevent open urination. Though there is the provision to collect penalty of Rs.10/-, NGO adopted persuasive strategy and posted its staff at vulnerable points to prevent open urination and improve the level of cleanliness in free urinals, so that the users are encouraged to use the toilets. The NGO also took action to improve over all get up of the bus stand and Gandhi Market Complex by doing some painting and minor repairs. The NGO also took up minor repairs such as connecting urinals with pipe to prevent open flow of urine, which helped in checking the foul smell. The NGO also had some difficulty initially to recruit such a large force of 250 persons. There was also some difficulty in maintaining regular attendance in the first fortnight. However, the NGO recruited additional staff to meet this contingency. It adopted various methods such as giving incentives to those workers who stayed more than a month to encourage the workers to continue with the NGO. From City Corporation side, regular coordination meeting with Police, Transport Corporation, City Corporation staff and Shopkeepers were organized to facilitate the NGO to settle down fast and to prevent any communication gap between various stakeholders.
Results Achieved:
City Corporation is able to engage an NGO who is handling this task on non-commercial and social economic basis. The NGO has given employment to more than 250 men and women who are from weaker sections of society. There is an over all improvement in the sanitation in these public places as the cleaning work takes place all around 24 hours. The quantity of garbage lifted has gone up from 40 to 50M.T. Open urination and consequent foul smell has been arrested. NGO is able to achieve this by persuasive efforts & by creating awareness through various means. The over all get up at these public places have also improved as the NGO has taken up painting and minor repairs. City Corporation was employing 90 sanitary workers. These 90 workers have been withdrawn and deployed to other needy places thereby improving the sanitation in other areas. City Corporation would have incurred an additional expenditure of Rs.12 million as salary if these 250 workers (250x Rs.4,000 x 12 months) are appointed as per Corporation service norms in addition to expenditure on electricity charges, uniforms and consumables. The income from toilets cum bathroom is around Rs.6 to 6.5 million. Thus City Corporation is able to save about Rs.6 million in terms of expenditure. In addition to that it is able to provide better service leading to higher public satisfaction and improved goodwill. This strategy is also beneficial to the NGO as it provides rare opportunity to interact with such a large population. It is also an opportunity for NGO to work with Government agency for the betterment of the society.
Sustainability:
This is a financially sustainable project for the NGO as well as City Corporation. City Corporation is able to maintain the bus stands and Gandhi Market Complex & surrounding roads better. NGO is able to meet expenses on salary for 250 workers, pay electricity charges, meet expenditure on consumables out of the income derived from pay and use toilets and also pay a some of Rs.0.43 million / year to the City Corporation. 20% of the solid waste management of the City Corporation (garbage lifted at these public places is 20% of garbage generated in the Corporation limit) is carried out with no financial commitment on the part of the City Corporation. Further, City Corporation has withdrawn 90 sanitary workers who were working in the Gandhi Market Complex and two bus terminus and deployed them in other needy areas. This has resulted in improvement of sanitation in these areas and consequent greater public satisfaction and goodwill for City Corporation. The other existing pay & use toilets which are located in important public places earning good revenue which are currently leased out to private and individual contractors on auction basis are being identified to be leased out from 1.4.2006 on the above model. By this way, City Corporation is expecting to get additional 100 workers, which will not only improve the upkeep and cleaning of these toilets and surrounding areas but also release the existing workers working in these areas which can be deployed in other needy areas. These existing pay & use toilets are proposed to be handed over to Self Help Groups of women and NGOs on yearly contract basis based on transparent open competitive bidding to have more competitiveness and further improved results form the outsourcing of the task.
Lessons Learned:
This strategy is successful in solving the solid waste management problem without any additional financial commitment to employment. This has improved service delivery and created sustainable employment to men and women leading to economic empowerment. The unique feature in this project is that it can solve the solid waste management problem without any additional financial commitment to urban local body and at the same time bring in revenue. If this system is followed in other urban local bodies there is scope for creating huge employment opportunities without any financial commitment to the ULBs. The success of the project depends on identifying a resourceful NGO with good leadership qualities who can manage the activity even during crisis time and natural calamities. Though there were initial problems while transferring the above task from City Corporation staff to NGO, they were overcome by the regular monitoring and proper coordination between City Corporation officials and NGO. The present project was designed to cover the 2 bus terminus and 1 Gandhi Market Complex as a single unit as this project will be viable only if the entire area is taken up as one unit. The income from the Central Bus stand is high but the expenditure is comparatively less. On the other hand, the income is less in Gandhi Market Complex and Chattram Bus stand but the expenditure is high. In future projects, City Corporation proposes to take up pay & use toilets in important public places as individual unit and offer it for operation and maintenance including cleaning of earmarked surrounding areas to SHG & NGO. With more agencies there is expected to be more competitiveness and further improvement in the performance of the agencies.
Transfers:
The City Corporation was maintaining the Bus terminus and Gandhi Market Complex with 90 workers, and 4 supervisory staff and incurring an expenditure of Rs.4.5 lakhs per month. This includes payment of salary electricity charges, cost of consumables etc. However due to staff shortage and other limitations already pointed out the task could not be carried out up to the optimum level and up to the full satisfaction of the public. The NGO is managing the activity with 250 workers with a monthly expenditure of Rs.0.50 million which includes payment of salary, electricity charges consumable including minor repairs and paying Rs.0.43 million per year to City Corporation etc. If the City Corporation has to employ 250 workers it has to spend Rs.1.00 million per month. This translates to an annual saving of Rs12 million for the City Corporation. Further, withdrawing 90 sanitary workers and deputing them to other areas has helped it to provide better service delivery in other areas. Moreover, if an NGO does not produce the expected out put it can be replaced but this is not possible with ULB staff as they are permanent staff governed by fixed rules and protected by strong unions. NGO is deploying workers on contract basis and emphasis is on performance. The success story of this City Corporation has been published widely by various newspapers and this was also highlighted during the departmental meetings with the Commissioner of Municipal Administration, Chennai who is the Head of Department for City Corporations. The officials of Madurai City Corporations have visited this project and they have also initiated action to adopt the same strategy for their bus terminus. Few other Municipalities have also visited this Corporation for first hand information and have obtained copy of bid documents. The NGO who is performing this task here has also been approached by other urban local bodies, with a request to take up similar job in their area. This City Corporation itself is trying to replicate this model to other areas from 1.4.2006. 12 existing pay & use toilet cum bathrooms located in important commercial areas have been identified to be handed over to Self Help Groups of women and NGOs for collection of user charges and for up keeping of these toilets and cleaning of earmarked roads, drains & house to house collection of garbage in surrounding areas.
Related Policy:
Government of Tamil Nadu has already issued Government Order No. 69, Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department, Dated 1.4.1998 permitting local bodies to privatize sanitary related activities.
