When the pits fill up: (in)visible flows of waste in urban India

Prasad, C. S. Sharada and Ray, Isha (2019) When the pits fill up: (in)visible flows of waste in urban India. Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development, 9 (2). pp. 338-347. ISSN 2043-9083

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Abstract

India's flagship program on sanitation and hygiene – the Swachh Bharat Mission – aims to eliminate open defecation and to manage urban waste for a ‘Clean India’. The emptying of toilet pits and the transport of waste are as critical as more toilets are for sustainable sanitation. In unsewered cities of the global South, these services are mainly provided by privately run cleaning trucks. We find that the physical and social mechanisms through which these services are organized are virtually invisible in national fecal sludge and waste management policies. Based on a rich ethnography of cleaning trucks in Bangalore, India, we show that trucking operations dispose of sludge in ways that harm both public health and the environment, and that the caste composition of sanitation work helps to keep it invisible from officials and the public. We draw on the concept of the social role of disgust to explain the seen-and-unseen nature of these trucks. ‘Seeing’ sludge management as it is practiced is essential for understanding how the sanitary city is being produced and for the success of future sanitation reforms. This article has been made Open Access thanks to the generous support of a global network of libraries as part of the Knowledge Unlatched Select initiative.

Item Type:	Article
Authors:	Prasad, C. S. Sharada and Ray, Isha
Document Language:	Language English
Subjects:	Social sciences > Economics > Macroeconomics & related topics > Factors affecting income and wealth > Poverty Social sciences > Law > Labor, social, education & cultural law > Miscellaneous social problems and services > Environmental protection Public Health
Divisions:	Azim Premji University - Bengaluru > School of Development
Full Text Status:	Public
URI:	http://publications.azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/id/eprint/7227
Publisher URL:	https://doi.org/10.2166/washdev.2019.153

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