The Daily Fix: Women's cricket in India is on the verge of greater things but is the BCCI listening?

The Big Story: Talking about a revolutionEngland are the champions of the arena however India in their very own manner are champions too. Mithali Raj and her band of warriors did not automatically enter the Women s World Cup: they needed to qualify for it. After a brilliant begin they gave the look of they were fading away. But then they made an superb comeback wherein they beat aspects ranked higher than them in 4 straight suits. They were dazzling however inside the very last on Sunday the vicious cocktail of stress and nerves were given to them.It became heartbreaking however the adventure to the very last may have performed more for ladies s cricket in India than anything that the Board of Control for Cricket in India has managed in a long term. That is why this cannot be an end it has to be a beginning.The recreation can be the identical however Indian cricket lives in two special worlds.One world the only that guys inhabit is glamorous and high profile. It is a global in which gamers get hold of multi-million dollar contracts for gambling inside the two-month Indian Premier League a international where endorsements for elite cricketers are hardly ever in brief supply. If you are a Grade A cricketer inside the Board of Control for Cricket s relevant contracts pool you may assume to acquire a cool Rs 2 crore consistent with yr.By evaluation the cricket board introduced critical  contracts for ladies cricketers for the primary time best in 2015. The players inside the maximum grade http://forums.powwows.com/members/239469.html receive Rs 15 lakh. It is a glaring difference one which desires to be addressed if this triumph is to come to be the forebear of some thing extra. A professional women s league at the traces of the Indian Premier League may even assist the game in a big manner. But is the BCCI listening? Does it care?Women s cricket is at the cusp of a revolution one that must be endorsed. To try this the BCCI can't allow this golden possibility slip. For one they have to try to ensure the printed of all worldwide suits proposing the Indian crew. If they're questioning how else to head about it they could think about paying attention to the captain herself. The BCCI has made an effort that the closing home series have been televised and social media has progressed a number of it however there may be a nonetheless a lot of seize-as much as do in terms of recognition Mithali Raj stated at the start of the tournament. I agree with that in case you are representing your united states your united states need to get the first-class of the high-quality. That s the important thing word: first-rate of the great .  It s not asking plenty: simply ensure your countrywide crew gets the great facilities they are able to. And while that starts with broadcasting their suits it additionally way making sure they have enough training camps sufficient tours abroad and committed help group of workers.If Kapil s Devils spark off a cricket revolution in 1983 Raj s team no matter their loss within the final has already the completed the equal in 2017. It s time they get their due.The Big ScrollBefore the sector cup very last Vinayakk Mohanarangan spoke to former girls  s group teach Purnima Rau who said the group had already proved they had been champions.PunditryIn the Indian Express Imad Ul Riyaz writes that as a Muslim and a Kashmiri he unearths the middle ground disappearing.In the Hindu Peter Ronald Desouza argues that the race for the vice president s put up is a competition among ideas of India.In the Telegraph Manini Chatterjee says Mayawati has the hazard to galvanise the Dalit motion again.Giggles#h1bvisa #h1b zaroorat hai zaroorat hai zaroorat hai. Sakt zaroorat hai bhai %.Twitter.Com/fvfDAeYCXv hemant morparia (@hemantmorparia) July 21 2017 Don t miss...Abhishek Dey visits Noida and finds an email debate raging many of the citizens of Mahagun Moderne the rental complicated that these days became the centre of a category struggle: At the complex many citizens continue to be unhappy about the movement taken against domestic people following the July 12 episode. A resident said that the blacklisting of domestic employees was no longer a unanimous selection. The resident stated that some had taken the selection and the others couldn't do a good deal approximately it. The actual undertaking of figuring out and https://forums.zmanda.com/member.php?37145-gdnther limiting the blacklisted workers from entry was applied with the aid of the complicated s control.Others trust that greater ought to be completed to save you domestic workers from conducting a comparable incident. Others still are involved approximately the wealthy as opposed to terrible narrative that has emerged as it portrays them in a bad light. The debate started out on e mail however have become sharper after a Telegram institution titled MM Platform changed into created following Union minister Sharma s visit. As of July 20 the institution had around 1 250 residents of the society as participants. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is making plans a grand felicitation for the Indian girls s cricket team which won a billion hearts despite a heartbreaking loss in the World Cup very last at Lord s on Sunday. The crew is scheduled to go back domestic in batches from Wednesday onwards. The date and venue for the felicitation has no longer been finalised but and can be performed after checking the availability of the players. At the rite the players can be supplied with cheques of Rs 50 lakh every at the  same time as the support staff will receive will Rs 25 lakh every as introduced by way of the BCCI earlier than the final. Efforts are also on for a gamers interaction with Prime Minister Narendra Modi who richly praised the ladies for taking India to their first very last in 12 years. They lost the final but made the country proud with their overall performance. The BCCI https://www.3dartistonline.com/user/gdnther will organise a felicitation for the group and we are also trying to fix up a assembly with Prime Minister Modi said a BCCI professional near the improvement. ALSO READ Piers Morgan tries to troll Sehwag after WWC loss however Viru s respond will make you pleased with Indian players There is a sense (many of the BCCI and COA) that the surge in popularity of the girls s sport have to be cashed in on. One way to construct at the World Cup gains is by way of having a women s IPL. The attention now need to without delay turn to the World T20 next year the respectable added. Meanwhile the Madhya Pradesh authorities has announced Rs 50 lakh award for the team. The Indian women s team misplaced through 9 runs to England in a tense summit clash of the World Cup last night time finishing runners-up for the second time -- the preceding being the 2005 edition. ALSO READ WWC: Rishi Kapoor faces large flak for sexist shaggy dog story approximately Mithali Raj later backtracks Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan introduced that the award might be given to the group at a grand rite. MP Govt. Will felicitate @BCCIWomen World Cup crew in a grand ceremony in BhopalThe DM of Aurangabad was addressing a public gathering on a cleanliness drive in Jamhore village of the Aurangabad district. (ANI/Video grab) The effort to promote Swachh Bharat Abhiyan by Bihar s Aurangabad District Magistrate Kanwal Tanuj turned controversial when the official said that those who cannot build a toilet at home should do something that is shocking. The DM was addressing a public gathering on a cleanliness drive in Jamhore village of the Aurangabad district. Speaking to the villagers the DM said that due to lack of toilets at home women go out. This many times result in women get raped and harassed. Talking about the Centre s scheme to build toilets he said that it only costs Rs 12 000 for the construction of the toilet and asked is 12 000 more than anyone s wife s dignity? However his attempt to relate the need for toilets with the dignity of women did not go well and it raked up a controversy. In a video released by news agency ANI the official was heard asking the gathering Is there any man who would tell me that take the dignity of my wife and give me Rs 12 000? Is there anyone like that? On this when a villager said that he did not have enough money to build a toilet at home Tanuj said he should then sell his wife. Watch the video here: #WATCH Aurangabad s DM Kanwal Tanuj says go sell your wife to a person while addressing a public gathering on cleanliness (22.07) #Bihar pic.twitter.com/kqkQpVdC1q ANI (@ANI_news) July 23 2017 In a 32 seconds video the official was clearly shown irked by the villager s reply which was I do not have the money to build a toilet. Replying to which DM said I will talk to you. But when the villager repeated the same thing he shouted If that is the case then go and sell your wife. He did not stop here and further said If this is the mentality then go and auction the dignity of your home and tell the government you will not be able to construct a toilet said DM Tanuj. So many people talk about advance payment they get the advance and then spend it on useless things added Tanuj in the gathering. BHOPAL: Toilets seem to be the latest flashpoint of caste divide in rural Madhya Pradesh despite the glare of the Swachh Bharat campaign. The privileged members of a dusty hamlet in Bundelkhand are accused of breaking toilets built by Scheduled Caste villagers apparently incensed that the Swachh loos came as a great leveller. The tussle is between the downtrodden Prajapatis and influential Patels in Barakhera village about 50km from the district headquarters of Chhattarpur. Women of the SC community have alleged that some Patels smashed the toilets because their doors opened in front of their houses and narrowed down the road. We are now forced to go out to relieve ourselves they rued. For some Prajapatis it s even worse. To add to our woes the Patel community has threatened to beat us if we go out to defecate. Neither are we allowed to go to our toilets nor are we allowed to go in the open. What can we do now asked Champa. The conflict is intense enough to worry the administration. On Saturday a team of officials visited the village to ensure that the toilets are constructed again. The Prajapati community in Barakhera village numbers half a dozen families. The Patels belong to the OBC community but are affluent and politically influential in the region. When the bickering started construction of two toilets had finished and they were to be opened on Saturday and four more were near completion all that was left was to put a tin sheet as the roof. The government had provided Rs 13 000 for their construction. But all our efforts are likely to go to waste. Now we will have to go out for defecation said Mithila Prajapati a local. The SC families are now using earthen pots in their backyard said Mukesh Prajapati. We are suffering because the village sarpanch also belongs to the Patel community. The only reason why our toilets were broken is that they were built in front of the houses of Patels. Bhagwan Das Patel one of those bothered by the toilets in front of his house said: The whole day we are forced to see people moving in and out of the toilets. Moreover the toilets have narrowed the road. We have lodged a complaint with the panchayat. CEO of the district panchayat Harsh Dixit said: I have sent a team to find out why the toilets were demolished. I will comment only after the team submits its report. Needless to say Chhattarpur lags way behind in achieving open-defecationfree (ODF) tag. VADODARA: IndianOil s Gujarat Refinery joined hands in the biggest mass cleanliness initiatives in the country Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan by taking up various initiatives to make the drive a success. Widening the horizons of Swachh Bharat Pakhwada Gujarat Refinery took the Swachchta pledge administered by executive director of Gujarat Refinery on July 16. Sarpanches and other residents of the nearby villages were present during the occasion. In order to encourage residents of these villages for making cleanliness a way of life sanitation kits including waste bins broomsticks and sanitary material were distributed to the sarpanches of Undera Bajwa Karachiya and Koyali. Gujarat Refinery executive director Sudhir Kumar said For us Swachh Bharat Pakhwada is a step towards achieving goal of a changed India we wish to see. When we consciously keep our public spaces as clean as our homes then we shall be truly creating a Swachh Bharat. Gujarat Refinery has planned a fortnight long programme to spread awareness among employees township residents school children shop-keepers in the refinery township through awareness campaigns posters walkathon rally as well as drives to enhance cleanliness in administrative offices plant areas along with tree plantation initiative to support a clean green initiative. JAIPUR: Husan Dalwai Rajya Sabha MP for Maharashtra raised the matter of functionaries taking photographs of people defecating in the open as part of enforcing the Swachh Bharat Mission. The MP asked the Union minister for drinking water and sanitation whether any complaints of such photographs were ever received and if action had been taken against anyone found manhandling people as part of Swachh Bharat. In a response tabled in the Rajya Sabha the government responded that taking photographs is not part of the mission and no action has been taken against anyone for this. It may be pertinent to mention here that 55-year-old Zafar Husain an activist with the CPI-ML had objected to functionaries out clicking photographs of women defecating in the open in the slum he lived in at Pratapgarh on June 16. He was allegedly thrashed so severely for preventing municipal employees from humiliating the poor women that he died of his injuries. Police booked a case against commissioner Ashok Jain and employees of the municipal corporation Kamal Harijan Ritesh Harijan and Manish Harijan under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC. None of the accused however has yet been arrested. Pratapgarh SP Shivraj Meena has maintained that the post-mortem report showed Husain died of cardio-respiratory failure. He also claims the investigation is still going on and arrests will occur until the probe is over. The government s response does not take cognizance of this loss of life in the course of the implementation of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. To the question on what will be done if officials are found manhandling people the minister responded that sanitation is a state subject - thus evading a response even though Swachh Bharat is a central scheme. The environmentalist Khamuram Bishnoi from Rajasthan campaign for plastic pollution and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in his two days visit in Mumbai. (Express Archive) The Centre has come out with a clarification to dispel claims that Prime Minister Narendra Modi s ambitious Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) is not working. According to a Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation release the sanitation coverage in rural India has gone up from 42% to 64% since the launch of SBM and the Rapid Survey of Swachhta Status of the NSSO conducted in May-June 2015 said that 95.6% of people who had toilets used them. It goes on to say that Swachh Bharat Mission is not essentially a toilet construction-led programme but also focuses on toilet usage. The metric Open Defecation Free which was defined in 2015 shortly after the launch of Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) is essentially a measure of toilet usage. Unless every member of every household in a village uses a toilet for defecation the village cannot be declared ODF. The government says that there are several independent verification mechanisms in place for SBM. In 2015 the NSSO carried out the Rapid Survey of Swachhta Status in May-June. At present the Quality Council of India is carrying out a similar exercise covering nearly 100 000 households. The ministry has also instituted National Level Monitors to verify all ODF districts with a special focus on the villages on the banks of the Ganga. An Independent Verification Agency (IVA) has also been hired as part of the World Bank loan which is less than 10% of the total projected government outlay (Centre and States) for the mission. The World Bank loan agreement was signed on March 30 2016. The ministry says there is a multi-stage verification system at the district and state level for Open Defecation Free (ODF) villages. As per the SBM guidelines a village needs to be verified within three months of the declaration of ODF. Of the 2 lakh ODF declared villages nearly 1.5 lakh have been declared ODF only in the last year. Over 1 lakh villages have already been verified it says. SBM aims for behaviour change through IEC. The Centre is spending around 3% of the Union SBM budget on Information education and communication (IEC) while the States are expected to spend 5% of their respective State Centre budgets on IEC. A recent order of the ministry made spending the stipulated amount by States on IEC will a pre-condition for the release of funds to States from the next second instalment onwards of 2017-18. Even as the Union government under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is aiming to make the country open-defecation free by 2019 the Manapparai panchayat in Trichy district is employing a technique used by many villages in North India to prevent residents of Seegampatti village from defecating in the open and use toilets instead. The panchayat has tasked women from self-help groups with patrolling open spaces and fields of the village asking them to whistle when they see people defecating in the open. These women later sensitise such residents on the health hazards of the practice encouraging them to use/build toilets in their houses. The women have been engaged with the job as part of the village poverty reduction committee where one motivator has been assigned to sensitise each village panchayat. The panchayat is presently concentrating on creating awareness among the women of the village as authorities believe the message will reach families faster if the women are educated about it. Having used open spaces all these years there are many women who avoid using toilets despite having one at home. Our initiative is to sensitise them on the health hazards they and other villagers may face due to open defecation says Rajeswari a motivator in Manapparai. Before the panchayat employed us to patrol the fields many villagers used to avoid us when we visited their houses to sensitise them against open defecation says Rajalakshmi another motivator. While these motivators are not given salaries those who make village panchayat open defecation free will be felicitated with 5000 cash reward. More than embarrassing women by whistling or using torchlights to http://www.comicforum.de/member.php?202881-gdnther identify them the idea is to create awareness says block coordinator under the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) R V Ramalingasamy. Open defecation is rampant in villages during the evening. People tend to relieve themselves in open fields water bodies and road sides which magnify the danger of diseases he adds. Project director of district rural development agency R Malarvizhi says that several localised techniques were suggested at a meeting of Project Directors in Chennai a few weeks ago to prevent open defecation in rural areas. While these techniques adopted in a few villages in north India have helped in making them open defecation free we are now adopting them in our villages. We have also been asking residents to cover human waste with soil to prevent any outbreak of diseases and other health issues. The idea is to introduce a behavioral change among the rural population and encourage them to using toilets over relieving themselves in the open she adds. Written by Val Curtis | Updated: July 22 2017 12:35 am According to the Swachh Bharat dashboard 44 million toilets have been built since the declaration of the BHAG in October 2014.(Illustration: C R Sasikumar) Related News This boy s little act to keep the Delhi metro clean is bigger than any campaignZilla Swachh Bharat Prerak: Young professionals fan out to free rural districts of open defecationMumbai s Versova Beach gets a makeover and Twitterati LOVE it!India has set itself a seemingly impossible goal to end open defecation by October 2 2019. This is a tall order as Diane Coffey and Dean Spear s new book: Where India Goes points out. Why do organisations set themselves such apparently impossible tasks? Ending open defecation for all Indians by 2019 is what is known in management parlance as a BHAG a Big Hairy Audacious Goal. Leadership experts know that by offering a worthwhile but difficult to achieve vision you can mobilise an institution motivate a workforce drive change and sometimes even reach that goal. The archetypal BHAG was set by the great leader John F Kennedy in his speech in 1961 when he said We chose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things not because they are easy but because they are hard. It has long been known that lack of toilets allows faecal germs to spread which cause sometimes fatal illnesses like cholera and diarrhoea especially among children. But there is a more insidious danger from human excreta. As Coffey and Spears book sets out Indians are shorter than they should be and this pattern of stunted growth cannot be explained by genetics poverty or lack of food. Being born and brought up in a place where open defecation is common means that guts are constantly being damaged by faecal pathogens and parasites. Undernutrition sets in leaving kids more vulnerable to infections which in turn make them more malnourished. Energy is diverted from cognitive development lowered intelligence compromises the ability to earn and poverty is entrenched. By one estimate open defecation costs India a staggering 6.4 per cent of its GDP. Seen in this light India has no choice but to declare war on open defecation. And with the declaration of the BHAG the government machinery from the prime minister to chief ministers to district magistrates has swung into action. Across India s more than 600 districts hundreds of thousands of village sarpanches and pradhans teachers youth groups women children and entire communities have come together joined vigilance committees made pledges built toilets and stopped defecating in the open. Billboards and wall paintings talk about the previously unmentionable toilet and excitement is maintained through events competitions awards social media and now a new feature film called Toilet A Love Story is about to release. Even the PM devotes a section of his radio address to the nation Mann ki Baat each month to the campaign. Swachh Bharat has garnered international support and emulation and NGOs national and international development agencies have mobilised across India s least well- off districts. According to the Swachh Bharat dashboard 44 million toilets have been built since the declaration of the BHAG in October 2014. Over two lakh villages are open-defecation-free as are 149 districts and 5 states. And the numbers keep ticking up even as you watch the dashboard http://sbm.gov.in/ sbmdashboard/ all adding to the sense of excitement and movement towards a goal. The BHAG is doing what it is supposed to do igniting institutions around a visionary but hard to achieve goal. There is of course still a long way to go to achieve the BHAG as Coffey and Spears repeatedly state. Getting toilets to every household in India is a huge task with more than a third of the country still to be covered. But there is another challenge to the BHAG: Not everyone who has a toilet chooses to actually use it. Government has thus had to switch focus from building toilets to encouraging behaviour changes that can make villages truly open defecation free. Their surveys now aim to measure use as well as construction. The Quality Council of India as well as the World Bank s Independent Verification Agents (IVA) have been commissioned to survey nearly 1 00 000 households sto measure both toilet coverage and usage. The NSSO s Swachhta Status Report 2016 puts usage among toilet owners at upwards of 90 per cent which is encouraging. So can Swachh Bharat achieve its BHAG of ending open defecation? After a clearly argued data-backed analysis of why open defecation is harmful and why it persists Coffey and Spears depart from their area of expertise and turn to a rambling and emotive attack on current policy. Coffey and Spears seem to be saying that incentivising building toilets at a rapid pace is damaging because many are poorly constructed and some are never or partially used. This makes little sense from three perspectives. In the first place it is incorrect to argue that a policy is poor for the reason that some aspects of implementation are challenging. Second even if 20 per cent of these new toilet owners continue to go to the bush the reduction in infection from the 80 per cent who use toilets will provide substantial benefits. Third it flows from behavioural science that the very presence of a toilet is a constant reminder that society is changing that new norms of hygienic behaviour are expected. It will inevitably take longer to change the behaviour of some stubborn individuals but as the conveniences and advantages become obvious toilet usage will become a new routine the new normal. Academics will continue to play their important role of questioning government policy and remind them to use best practices. Government must listen but it must also continue to march on to achieve results. Will India prove able to do something that seems even more difficult than getting to the moon? Will 130 crore Indians be free https://publiclab.org/profile/gdnther of open defecation by the 150th birthday of Mahatma Gandhi in 2019? Only time will tell but India is at least on a mission to reach its BHAG sooner rather than later. The writer is professor London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine For all the latest Opinion News download Indian Express App More Related News Cleanliness drive at Wanowrie ground: 500 liquor bottles among 350 kg waste collected E-rickshaw driver murder: One arrested juvenile appehended Tags: BHAG open defecation Swachh Bharat KkrishanchandJul 23 2017 at 8:09 pmsawach bharat abhiyan in india very good programme p m narender modi ji the nessesrey sawachta in official india p m modi ji many programme launch by p m ji like pmjjby pmbsy atal pension yojana nya samridhi yojana those person doing in this programme they are very puzzal finance ministry of india all b c a p n b /sbi/bob cannot pay 5000 p m they are giving all b c a rs 3500 only it is unjustice for b c a please look in to the matter and nessesasrey action please krishan chand racheri parbhari republican party of india haryana pardesh p m ji you are a man of the development india if you are not solve the problem all b c a then you are man of the degress of india p m ji you are lunch scheme but all beauro crate can not implement the scheme it is your deganilitey please check and ordered to all bank head of the departmentReply PPPrasad78Jul 23 2017 at 5:34 amCorrecting all this legacy of 60 years of Corrupt Communal Casteist Congi and Socialist rule where our roads have become open toilets and rivers have become open sewers will definitely look impossible and a herculean task. However a start needs to be made somewhere. I would suggest first make Government ins utions - Railways Mantralayas Police Stations Administartive Oficces Universities etc..- more accountable for a healthy clean toilet in their premises. That would be a great beginning.Reply RRajeevJul 23 2017 at 2:48 amFor Swachh Bharat Swachh Minds are needed. So far more than ninety percent money is spent on Adverti t paying unimaginable amount of money to Media outlets toying BJP/RSS line. This is nothing but is one of the biggest Scam in progress.ReplyPPaulJul 23 2017 at 8:18 amIt is necessary to publicize the use of toilets. I guess those who are bent upon criticizing every thing are doing disservice to the cause.Reply BBharatJul 22 2017 at 9:14 pmBloody Indians. This is one place where Upper Middle class people also relieve themselves on the streets after a night out ... Poor people are starved with the facilities and need education ... Actually Indians are not good a ting and pissing in a sanitised manner .... They use a small in the ground and use their hands to clean their bums .... Then they do not wash their hands properly and they learn this in the schools ... So it is the schools where they have to be taught this .... And the next place is religious pilgrim spots ... Japanese built toilets and released Koi Fish in the inner pond of Golden Temple. The toilets are automatic and no need to use hands to touch the taps and the Sevaks help you with instructions to use the toilets ... Even Sarnath developed by Japanese is like heaven next to the dirty Varanasi developed by Indians since the last 30 years.ReplyMMurthyJul 22 2017 at 10:06 pm And you are calling out bloody Indians? Go to Mosul and Raqqa to see blood.ReplyRRam RaveJul 23 2017 at 12:12 amabe kattuReplyPPaulJul 23 2017 at 8:20 amHe is a Paki.Reply SSeshubabu KilambiJul 22 2017 at 7:45 pmThe program will be effective only if groundwork matches the aspirations .....a long way to go ..Reply GGosbJul 22 2017 at 7:27 pmI love Shrimathi Val Curtis JI for her amazing g efforts to have agreed to put her name as author as ordered by dogs in BJP BRUTAL DISINFORMATION.CELL . THERE ARE BSTRDS AND B I T C H E S CALLING THEMSELVES AS PROFESSORS AND LECTURERS IN FOREIGN COLLEGES HIRED BY BRAHMIN PIGS JUST FOR THEIR PROPAGANDA. BEWARE... AND BE AWAREReply PParth GargJul 22 2017 at 5:13 pm44m toilets with no water and electricity.ReplyKKgJul 22 2017 at 5:35 pmYou inspected each of them? You are a a brave man.ReplyRRajatJul 22 2017 at 5:39 pmOnly Pappy can bring back electricity and water. We want Pappu. Pappy ko laoReply KKgJul 22 2017 at 3:42 pmI myself being a post graduate did not comprehend the true dimensions of this issue when building toilets were declared as one of the priorities of this government.I was expecting announcements of building huge ins utions roads trains airport universities etc to make India a developed country but it were the toilets which took the spotlight.And now I realize that how important and crucial this is for India.Reply Load More Comments To say that India enjoys a particularly complex economy would be stating the obvious. But an indication of exactly how complex the economy is came to the fore when the Goods and Services Tax was levied on recyclable scrap. The GST rate on waste cardboard PET plastic and paper is 12% while other old plastics and bottles attract 18% tax. The government has put municipal solid waste in an exempt category for GST but then seems to contradict itself by taxing recyclable waste materials that emerge primarily from municipal waste.On its own GST seems like a step forward in our complex taxation system. However in its teething stages in dealing with waste it has treaded on the toes of several lakh recyclers the majority of them struggling to earn minimum wages to stay above the poverty line. It will end up worsening environmental conditions and cleanliness in public spaces too.Drop in price of scrapMost waste in India reaches our recycling factories via sheer human labour. Typically factories in India do not import scrap as they once did. Instead they depend on the country s own explosion in consumption for their raw materials. They purchase scrap from large dealers sitting at the apex of a long trade chain powered at the base by over 15 lakh waste pickers.Some of the traders at the top of this chain are large rich and formalised. Most of the rest of the six lakh traders have small enterprises buying mixed waste from waste pickers and selling it onwards. These traders employ several lakh workers as waste sorters in their shops and recycling units. While data is patchy a June 2015 report by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce suggests that the plastics recycling industry in India employs about 1.6 million people and has more than 7 500 processing units. Key to its success is the fact that the raw materials for this industry are free to start with.(Photo credit: Reuters).But what is happening as GST which was implemented across the country from July 1 rolls out? Already the prices of some scrap materials have dipped. In Delhi the price of cardboard has fallen by Rs 3 a kg a reduction of almost 25%. The price of waste PET bottles has fallen by about 30%. No trader wants to pay for a devaluating material. As formal sector recyclers anticipate taxes they hedge against uncertainty by either not purchasing waste and creating a glut or paying less for waste. Both lead markets to tank.The GST on glass bottles and PET will reduce their competitiveness vis-à-vis virgin materials resulting in reduced recycling. There is uncertainty right now and the markets have slowed down. This at a time the markets are typically the busiest (in the summer).Currently even relatively low-value materials such as waste plastic bags are picked up for recycling at Rs 3 per kg because they have an economic value. Post GST initial signs show that these materials will not be economically viable as the final recyclers pay taxes on them and hence will pay less to acquire them. Waste pickers are therefore unlikely to pick them up. This is a crisis in itself because plastic bags have proved to be a menace across India. They clog drains are ingested by cows and other animals and now India has one of the world s largest plastic landfills fed by its plastic bags floating in the Bay of Bengal. All these problems will stand exacerbated. Ideally plastic bags should simply be banned rather than taxed. Regardless this trend implies an additional burden on an already overworked municipal system. Recycling is widely acknowledged to be a means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Actors in the developed world have adopted this as one of many strategies to reduce their emissions. India already has a robust recycling system and one of the world s highest recycling rates. A 2009 study by Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group computed that Delhi s recycling efforts saved 3.6 times more greenhouse gas emissions than any project receiving carbon credits in India at the time. India s commitment to fighting greenhouse gas emissions has to be an inclusive one if it must be effective. The GST must therefore protect recycling given its wider value to the nation. Impact on most vulnerable If it does not its first victims could be women and children. Women waste pickers often scavenging or working only part time due to domestic chores earn less. With a dip in prices for recyclable waste their income is likely to reduce even further. As they become lower contributing members of the household they will be further economically and socially marginalised. A decline in the income of adults working as waste pickers will likely have a severe impact on children. Trends from other cases of reduced incomes from waste-picking showed that in 2013 63% of the children of an impacted site dropped out of school to start working in order to supplement their family income when their parents were unable to access waste. In 2009 during the recession waste prices also saw a similar dip. A 2009 study at Chintan showed that 41% families gave up buying milk for their children entirely for over nine months and 80% stopped buying luxuries which they defined as fruit meat and milk.Workers involved in recycling and sorting who are typically paid on the basis of the http://en.calameo.com/accounts/5256393 minimum prices of waste scrap could also take a hit in their incomes. Some employers also believe that with overall income reduced due to lower selling prices they will be unable to continue to employ all the workers they have today. A conversation with several such employees recently suggested that older employees are likely to be let-off first followed by women.Thus the unintended impact of GST on recyclable waste is likely to be severe. It will reduce livelihoods exacerbate poverty and increase hardships particularly for women and children. It will have a negative impact both the environment and the aims of the Prime Minister s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan which would want all recyclable waste picked up and recycled rather than allowed to litter public spaces.Rescinding the GST levied on scraps of plastic paper cardboard and glass is essential. These are the food-bowls of crores of India s real environmentalists. Bharati Chaturvedi is the director of the Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group.