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Modern municipal waste disposal is not limited to removal of garbage but involves a strategic churning out of unwanted people. This is seen through a massive fire (2016) managed by displacing waste-workers @ Deonar dump 1/10 @DiscardStudies #Discard2020 https://go.nasa.gov/3lMdeyU
Through ethnographic work conducted over 11 months (2016-17) I found that criminalization & blame are central to the removal of waste-workers from Mumbai’s Deonar landfill by labelling them as ‘illegal’ & rendering them unwanted. 2/10 #Discard2020
Landfills globally succeed in keeping waste ‘out of sight & out of mind’ except during moments of disruption. Toxic smoke from an exhausted Deonar engulfed Mumbai, triggering demands for its closure & exhibiting a forgotten landfill 3/10 #Discard2020 https://bit.ly/2Ha8Xqg
Middle-class residents protested, accused the govt. & municipal corporation (MC) for poor waste management. MC suspecting sabotage blamed the waste-workers & 13 were arrested. High Court ordered securing of dump & encouraged a WTE plant4/10 #Discard2020 https://bit.ly/35wn6qW
For decades, waste-workers from low-caste Dalit & Muslim communities have laboured at the dump facing frequent fires & lived at the margins. They work w/ tacit approval by the state in toxic & precarious conditions to reduce ~5000M/T unsegregated waste of city 5/10 #Discard2020
MC labelled waste-workers as ‘miscreants’ & banned their entry to the dump by cancelling permits, installed CCTVs, watchtowers & security guards. Losing their source of livelihood, ~200 waste-workers sought redressal by mobilizing & protesting w/ help of NGO 6/10. #Discard2020
MC’s officials refused to constructively address the waste-workers’ plight either by withholding information on future plans for waste management or impelling them to navigate complex bureaucratic hierarchies for more than a year 7/10 #Discard2020
Process of blame, criminalization & coercion diffused waste-workers’ collective mobilization over time. By making them ‘illegal’ waste-workers were discarded from waste economy, forced into exploitative negotiations w/ guards or migrate to other precarious jobs 8/10 #Discard2020
