Waste Management Approach, Covid-19 and Gender Inequality in Slums

November - December 2021

Ashna Gargi

Ashana Gargi is a student of Master of Disaster Studies at Special Centre for Disaster Research, JNU, New Delhi.

The composition of waste is not gender-neutral, so is the Covid-19 pandemic. The waste management approach showed a distinct impact on the transmission of COVID-19 among the Population living here. The poor waste management approach of people living in the posh upper-class society doubled the misery of the slum-dwelling population living on the fringes of capital cities. This study focuses on the differential impact of the waste management approach on the slum-dwelling population and the gender biases in these regions during the outbreak of the Pandemic.

Solid Waste Management and Gender

India as a society had a long-cherished tradition of cleanliness imbibed in its culture, beliefs, and lifestyles but it promotes personalized cleanliness.

Solid Waste Management is a major problem in India, where urbanization, industrialization, and economic growth have resulted in increased municipal solid waste (MSW) generation. The composition of waste varies for different gender and the impact of waste management is experienced differently by different genders.

Nature is also biased when it comes to exposure, Women are biologically more exposed to waste due to their excretory processes and conservative societies do not consider their different needs. Common sanitation practices infect a woman with various infections in comparison to men.

The population boom, the improvement in living standards, and the COVID-19 pandemic multiplied the challenges in waste management, especially in urban regions many folds.

The impact and composition of solid waste management vary from gender to gender and this indirectly affects disease transmission and its consequences on men and women are different.

During Covid-19, Women are at tremendous risk of contracting the disease due to many reasons like low immunity, many deficiencies, other co-morbidities, lack of safe sanitation facilities, especially in hazardous environments like landfill sites.

We have the luxury of dumping sites away from our beautiful homes and hence, we created an extremely dangerous environment for rag pickers, manual segregation on the dumping sites, and people living around the landfill sites.

Waste management and the Misery

Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 delineate the responsibility of the different stakeholders including the MoEF&CC, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, (MoHUA), Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs), State Urban Departments, Urban Local bodies, Gram Panchayats, as well as the waste generators.

The key components of SWM system include the following:

Stage 1: Segregation of waste-by-waste generator into dry and wet waste.

Stage 2: Door-to-door collection of waste and transportation of segregated waste.

Stage 3: Setting up material recovery facilities for dry waste to recover recyclables like plastic, paper, metal, glass, etc.

Stage 4: Setting up of waste processing facilities, viz., compost, bio methanation, and waste-to-energy plants for resource recovery and energy generation.

Stage 5: Setting up waste disposal facilities – Landfills.

Currently, waste management in Delhi only relies on stage 5, skipping all prior 4 stages. Segregation is least practiced in India, especially in Delhi (almost negligible). Wastes are dumped unsegregated, unprocessed on the landfill sites by municipal vehicles.

Poor waste management practices of people living in the posh areas of cities create hell for already ignored pieces of the population in the form of landfill areas. This directly implies that an economically upwelling class of society creates life-threatening hazards for marginalized and ignored sections of the society who are compelled to live on the waste of the so-called upper class. A large compact settlement residing around mountains of waste itself questioning mankind, but prominently evident gender biases screaming out loud in these areas making it worse.

Disaster, Gender Inequality and Class

Gender biases are observed in all classes, caste, and religions. But here in slum regions, poverty and the high rate of economic dependence of one gender over another established the bias in the most brutal way. Like any other disaster, Pandemic too exposed this bias wide open. Gender bias appeared in its worst form during this Pandemic

Though both genders were exposed to the pandemic more or less equally, however, in the study area chosen for this paper, Male got more exposed to the infection while working on landfill lands, but economically, socially, and biologically gender X always lacked some privileges over gender Y.

According to a new analysis commissioned by UN Women and UNDP, by 2021 around 435 million women and girls will be living on less than $1.90 a day — including 47 million pushed into poverty as a result of COVID-19 (UN Women 2020).

Waste management system, covid-19 and gender

According to UN Women (2020) published a report under the title, “Gender equality in wake of covid-19” while men have a higher fatality rate, Women and girls are especially hurt by the economic and social fallouts. The shift of funds to pandemic response is hampering women’s access to sexual and reproductive health.

Goal 11 paper (2020) in the analysis paper, “Harsh realities: Marginalized women in the cities of developing countries” produced by UN Women and UN-Habitat showed that Covid-19 cases were highest in East Africa in the slum of Kibera, where 116 women over 100 men tested positive. The paper highlighted that women in slums are suffering much worse than male slum and female non-slum counterparts in access to employment, health facilities, secure housing, and education. The paper mentions, “Most women in slums work, but it tends to be low-paid, temporary, strenuous and exploitative, making them more likely to be ‘working poor’ (employed but earning less than $1.90 a day).

Azcona et. al (2020) in the paper, “Covid-19 exposes the harsh realities of gender inequality in slums” showed 80% of the households in slum lacks access to safe handwashing and sanitation facilities. Where, women and girls collect water for the households, go to crowded community pumps or unprotected water bodies, take care of a sick member, take young children to latrines which increase their vulnerability to the infections through public interactions and being in an unhygienic place for a long time.

A case study of Bhalaswa and Jahangirpuri Landfill sites (Primary Survey)

Every disaster shows a differential impact on different gender, class, age etc., Covid is not an exception. Gender is crucial element of any management plan, which we neglect most of the time. This Pandemic culminated in escalating biomedical waste (BMW) worldwide and the management authorities are struggling with waste treatment. The unexpected fluctuations in waste composition and quantity also require a dynamic response from policymakers. But along with that, we also have to consider its differential impact on different gender as these issues are not gender-neutral.

Data for this paper is collected from the Delhi-NCR region focusing on Karol bagh, Bhalaswa, and Jahangirpuri landfill area.

Bhalaswa and Jahangir puri lie on the fringe of the city which carries Delhi’s most of the waste. It is governed by Municipal Corporation which comes under Delhi Metropolitan Region.   The   Bhalswa   Jahangir   Pur city is located in the Delhi state of    India.    As per provisional reports of Census India, the population of Bhalswa Jahangir Puri in 2011 is 197,148; of which males and females are 106,388 and 90,760 respectively. (Census of India 2011). For this study around 105 responders were interviewed, among whom 45 were female and 55 were male responders.

Gender Biases and Pandemic in Slums

When we visited societies near the Bhalswa dumping site and talked to people, we found that they are facing various problems like joint pain, cough problems, neurological problems, difficulty in breathing mainly in the rainy season, itching, etc. Along with this many women admitted that they were suffering from some kind of reproductive health issue and urinary disease. It is also found that there were lots of problems due to Leachate. The last residue of all waste is called Leachate and it is highly toxic. It reaches nearby grounds through capillary motion and contaminates soil and groundwater.

This can eventually affect the working of the health system during a situation like a pandemic. People living in these areas are already weak and suffering from many comorbidities which make them much more vulnerable to an epidemic, especially women who are more exposed due to low sanitation levels around.

Major Observations

  • Many Women are denied basic health checkup facilities.
  • Women are compelled to use common washrooms, which expose them to many infections.
  • They have to spend more time around public gatherings during pandemics for filling water on public taps, taking kids and elders to public toilets for sanitation, etc.
  • Even during pandemics slum dwellers are exposed to open, unprocessed wastes, as shown in the photo:
  • Women in slums were working as house helps before the pandemic, they lost jobs in the pandemic and hence, got dependent on the husband’s income.
  • Women are not privileged enough to practice isolation if someone from the family tests positive for covid in due to:
  • small houses lacking extra rooms,
  • They have to stay around patients to nurse them.
  • They are not allowed to stay outside the house while men of the family isolate themselves by staying outside the house or at some neighbor’s or relative’s home.
  • Some of the women kept deprived of the vaccination due to some misconception like a vaccine is inducing impotency, abortion, defecting sexual health, etc.
  • Due to poor finance, Male members of the family were given priority over females on access to covid test or treatment as males are earning members of the family and hence their lives are more important according to them.

Way Forward

  • Women-centric waste management plan is required.
  • Government needs to decrease the economic dependency of women by generating employment opportunities, introducing skill development programs, creating a safety net, educating them about their medical rights and facilities.
  • Clean and safe sanitation facility for women is required to contain the infection.
  • Health checkup camps are required for women in order to treat their other co-morbidities.
  • Immediate rehabilitation of people living around the landfill sites is needed.
  • A dedicated vaccination drive is required on a priority basis around these sites.

Conclusion

With the number of Covid-19 infections rising over the past several weeks, the city is facing a massive surge in biomedical waste. This survey is mainly performed to analyze the differential vulnerability of men and women living in the landfill sites of New Delhi to the epidemics in the context of covid -19.

We found that women of these landfill sites are somewhere more exposed to the covid-19 due to many biological and social reasons. People living around the landfill sites are much more vulnerable to the pandemic than the rest of the city.

According to Biotic Waste Management, one of the largest common biomedical waste treatment facilities in Delhi, Covid-19 waste generated last July was around 7.2 tons per day, which increased to 12.5-13 tons per day by the end of April 2021. All these wastes get dumped on the landfill sites which include, used masks, used PPE-Kit, Used gloves, sanitizer bottles, oxygen masks, etc.

Based on this information, we can easily draw a conclusion that people living around these landfill sites, hospitals, and garbage dumping sites are much more exposed to the pandemic and at a high risk of getting infected.

Acknowledgement:

I am grateful to my professor Dr Sunita Reddy for encouraging me to do write this article under the course on ‘Gender and Disaster’.

References

  1. Azcona et.al (2020) “Covid-19 exposes the harsh realities of gender inequality in  slums”; Accessed on 27/12/22
  2. Census of India, 2011; Accessed on 11/08/21
  3. Goal 11 (2020) “Harsh realities: Marginalized women in the cities of developing countries”. Accessed on 29/12/21
  4. https//www.delhi.gov.in; Accessed on 04/12/21
  5. https//www.downtoearth.org.in/news/governance/delhi; Accessed on 29/12/21
  6. https://www.indiawaterportal.org/topics/solid-waste; Accessed on 12/12/21
  7. Moreno-Walton et.al, “Disaster resilience: Addressing gender disparities” ; World Medical and policy; Accessed 03/12/2021
  8. UN Women (2020) “Gender equality in wake of covid-19”; Accessed on 09/01/22
  9. www.researchgate.net; Accessed on 16/12/2021

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