Swacch Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U)

Introduction

India's growing population, coupled with rapid urbanisation and industrialisation, has been putting a strain on the country's resources. The urban growth in India is faster than the average for the country and far higher for urban areas over rural. With rapid urbanisation, the country is facing massive waste management challenge. The need of the hour is to devise an efficient solid waste management system where in decision-makers and waste management planners can deal with the increase in complexity, and uncertainty. In this context, the Government of India revised the existing waste management laws, and brought in a new systematic change under its biggest cleanliness drive, Swachh Bharat Mission in 2014.

For an effective implementation of the guidelines; it was imperative to provide capacity building and training to Urban Local Bodies (ULBs). To that end, National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) was entrusted with the task of conducting exposure and training workshops as part of SBM. These have been spread over four phases in 2016, 2017, 2018-19 and 2019-2020. The SBM Exposure and Training Workshops brought it a paradigm shift in cross-learning among ULBs and converging waste management practices , livelihood and skill training in through a collaborative platform.