Ranjana Shinde who runs Pratigya Mahila Bhachat Gath, a self help group in Vidyavihar, has more than 140 women members in her group
The initiative of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to segregate dry and wet waste, and use uncooked wet waste for composting with help of self-groups has brought positive result. Not only new self-help groups are joining the initiative, existing groups are also seeking more space for composting.
Ranjana Shinde who runs Pratigya Mahila Bhachat Gath, a self help group in Vidyavihar, has more than 140 women members in her group. They collect waste from households, segregate it and then put the uncooked wet waste in the composting pits. She has been composting for the last two years, and now wants the civic body to allot her a bigger space. Like Shinde, other self-help groups are also asking for more space.
Shinde said more women are joining such initiatives. However, the space allotted to them by civic body seems small with rise in number of women joining the mission. "We are not composting as much as we can due to space crunch," she said. She said if a bigger space is given to them, they can involve more women. With more women working on composting, the amount of waste that is taken to dumping grounds can reduce significantly.
Several new self-help groups have come up in the last two months after getting training from existing self-help groups in Ghatkopar, Bhandup and Chembur area.
Currently, the civic body has given these groups iron net pits that are 6 feet long, and 2.5 feet tall. These compost pits are put up nearby housing societies and vacant places. Around 100kg green waste that is generated in kitchens can be put up daily with little amount of water for composting.
Shinde said, "We use the Vermi compost processing system which takes around one to two months to complete a cycle before a fresh load of waste can be put in. We sell the compost at exhibitions which are held for self-help groups like ours."
Vijay Balamwar, deputy municipal commissioner of solid waste management department says, the composting is being done by various slef-help groups in around 200 places, and more groups will be joining.
Recently, the civic body identified 14 locations where pits have either already been set up or will be set up. The pits have been set up at Bandra, Borivli, Malad, Goregaon and, Andheri in the western suburbs and in Bhandup and Chembur in the eastern suburbs and in Matunga.
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