1. LIVE PROJECT
BOTTOM OF THE PYRAMID
A UNIQUE LEARNING OPPORTUNITY
Dr. Sushil Kandalgaonkar
2. Context of Pune city
• Wicked (long) problems of urban spaces: Traffic,
Water supply, Pollution, Waste disposal
• Multiple stakeholders : citizens, PMC, institutions,
SWaCH waste-pickers, residential, commercial
complex, community- leaders.
• What is at the ‘Bottom of the Pyramid’ in waste
management of Pune?
3. Learning Objectives
3
1. Look : (observe- converse- listen-record) door-to-door collection by waste
pickers of SWaCH in specific ‘Prabhag’
2. Think ( in team) to understand, identify key features of managing waste
of ‘Prabhag’
3. Engage with waste generators and waste pickers, PMC staff ,
neighborhood/community.
4. Plan for Action( in teams) to improve the situation and implement a plan
( a step in Action Learning)
5. Document and communicate your field experience qualitatively/
innovatively
4. Field-work Expectations
• Visit ( 4-6 times) point/s of waste collection
• Closely observe(shadowing) a waste picker’s operations
• Engage/converse with residents, stakeholders to know the
strong and weak points of waste collection (in prabhag)
• Plan (in team) to persuade/ influence/intervene with
operations , people behavior and attitude
5. Focus on ground reality
Identify and work with specific problem/issue like
1 segregation (wet/dry) of waste,
2 health and income waste pickers,
3 disposal and composting of waste in homes, residential
society, school, office, malls,
4 recycling of waste initiatives,
5 disposal of sanitary waste
6. Focus Options :
• Social and economic status of waste pickers
• Costs and benefits of door to door waste collection
• Resistance from residents to segregate dry-wet ,
provide ‘sheds’ for sorting and composting,
• payment of fees to waste pickers
7. Your action initiatives options
7
• Creating awareness, persuade through conversations,
listening, conducting meetings, posters, street play,
Coordinating with SWaCh services like V-collect, E-collect
• Communicate to persuade and share with others the
contribution of
waste pickers in waste management like:
collecting, sorting, recycling of waste for clean air and
spaces, decentralized model of waste disposal.
8. Learning outcomes : assessment criteria
At the end of this project a student would learn and be assessed
• to generate qualitative data from the field, identify key issues
in a prabag
• to take initiative to engage with real people ( waste generators
and waste pickers) and real-specific problem/s
• to plan and engage as a team
• to document & communicate field experiences creatively
• contribute to the work of collective of waste pickers (SWaCH)
9. Your resources
9
SWaCh facilitators in your prabhag, ( from office: Ravi,
Suchismita)
Experts from Bodhisattva Learning, ( Sushil, Isha, Amruta)
faculty in-charge of project from your institute , team work
Mentor from corporate
Your motivation to engage with people and situation
Time : Fifteen days
Everything is possible with enthusiasm ( Anon)
Wish you the best of success!