Pourakarmikas turn to gods to make citizens waste-wise

BENGALURU: Residents of Thimmaiah Road in west Bengaluru woke up to a unique sight on Tuesday morning. Photographs of various deities adorned a roadside black spot that had been cleaned. Over 20 photographs were installed by 23 pourakarmikas working in the neighbourhood off West of Chord Road to drive home a point: segregate garbage and hand it over to civic workers instead of dumping it on the road.
A similar scene played out on the adjacent 2nd Main Road, but on a smaller scale. Tired of urging residents to segregate waste at source, pourakarmikas in Shivanagar ward took to invoking the deities.

After finishing their duty in the morning and removing garbage from Thimmaiah Road, pourakarmikas washed the dumping spot and laid out mats on which they placed garlanded photographs of deities. In a symbolic message to residents to refrain from polluting the road again, they drew rangolis and lit incense sticks.
“From repeated reminders to making announcements from our autos — we tried various ways to prod citizens to segregate waste. Not wanting to take the trouble, many would discreetly dump waste late at night or early in the morning. Not just household waste, even offal from meat shops would find their way into the dump. While we have been unable to find a solution, we hope at least now people will think twice before littering the road,” said 35-year-old Mahesh BG, solid waste management supervisor of the area.
Mahesh said while a few of the frames had been brought by pourakarmikas from their homes, others had been collected from under trees around temples.
“We have stationed a person at the place to ensure no one removes the pictures or messes up with them; we will keep the photos for a week. Passersby commended us for taking such a step, considering they are also affected by the stench. These people would request us to clear the black spot without realizing it’s residents from the neighbourhood who had been messing up the place,” said Mahesh.
Corporator hopeful of change
Manjula Vijaykumar, corporator of Shivanagar ward, who noticed the puja during her morning rounds, wanted to see if anything would change on the ground. “All sorts of waste, including beer bottles and offal, end up on the main road. This is the job of reckless citizens who dirty the place late in the night. We have been trying to catch them for long, but failed. Pourakarmikas have tried to address the situation in their own way. I want to see if their effort will bear fruit,” she said.