From constipation to composting, Big B is Bharat's best swachh bet

In a National award-winning performance in Piku, Amitabh Bachchan towards the end of the movie finally finds a solution to waste disposal from his body. In what could be Piku 2.0, Bachchan as the brand ambassador of the Swachh Bharat Mission, will focus on scientific waste disposal in India's cities and encourage Indians to work on converting municipal waste into city compost.

The idea is to make Big B the engine to co-opt citizens in the big idea to convert waste to wealth.

On a TV show, Bachchan had promised to give 50 hours time to the idea of a swachh Bharat. Even though the Government of India had put his name on hold as brand ambassador for Incredible India post the Panama papers leak, it could not think of anyone better than the Bollywood icon for this mission.

On the cards is a multi-platform communication campaign, which Bachchan during a preliminary meeting with officials has conveyed last week, will do pro bono. 

India produces 1.54 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of solid waste daily. Half of that is organic waste that can be converted into compost and gas.

According to the Dr Kasturirangan Task Force report on Municipal Solid Waste Management, the country has the potential to produce 54 lakh MT of compost per annum from waste. This, in turn, can be used by farmers, horticulturists, nurseries and farmhouse owners.

“While urea gives nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, compost gives carbon that increases soil's water retention capacity. Even if you put 5 kg of urea, half of it goes down without being retained by the soil. Compost would help farmers make optimum use of urea, besides improving the soil health,” says Praveen Prakash, Director of the Swachh Bharat Mission. 

The aim, Prakash says, is to make composting a citizen initiative instead of it being only the job of the 4041 municipalities in India. Bachchan's target audience will be resident welfare associations which will be nudged to set up compost pits.

Bulk waste generators like hotels and colleges too will have to set up composting equipment to process organic waste. With liquids that neutralise any bad smell available and thereby citizen resistance to the idea, the Mission hopes the commercial exploitation of compost will be a revenue generator as well. Already it has been mandatory for chemical fertiliser units to market city compost, with specific companies earmarked to buy the compost from individual cities. 

To push the idea aggressively, the actor will also interact with chief ministers and other public stakeholders to promote city compost among citizens.

In a parallel move, the ministry is also expanding the number of cities competing to be India's cleanest cities by including all urban conglomerates with a population of over 1 lakh. The top 500 list will be out in January 2017.