Minister for housing and urban affairs Hardeep S Puri said that 1,000 cities were targeted to become 3-star garbage free by October 2024. He said that since its inception in January 2018, the GFC-Star rating protocol has seen an exponential increase in certifications.
The minister was speaking at an event to celebrate the International Zero Waste Day 2023, observed on March 30. The event also saw a fireside chat with mayors where states like Bihar, Jharkhand, UP, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh shared their best practices and success stories.
In the second phase of the Swachh Bharat Mission- Urban (SBM-U 2.0), India aims to become a garbage free nation (GFN). Achieving door-to-door collection, source segregation, waste processing and dumpsite remediation, IEC, capacity building, digital tracking, etc., are the components of creating a GFN. India is also promoting the zero-waste approach that entails responsible production, consumption and disposal of products in a closed, circular system.
In the first phase of the mission, urban India has become open-defecation free (ODF), with all 4,715 urban-local bodies (ULBs) completely ODF, 3,547 ULBs are ODF+ with functional and hygienic community and public toilets and 1,191 ULBs are ODF++ with complete faecal sludge management. Further, waste processing in India has gone up by over four times from 17% in 2014 to 75% in March 2023. This has been aided through 100% door-to-door waste collection in 97% wards and source segregation of waste being practised by citizens across almost 90% wards in all ULBs in the country.
