Factors Affecting the Cleanliness of Urban Streets: Perspective of Street Sweepers of Ahmedabad

Street cleaning is a fundamental service provided by Urban Local Body (ULB) to ensure clean and hygienic urban conditions. National Government has demonstrated greater impetus on the cleanliness of cities by initiating Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban. Subsequently, new Solid Waste Management Rules 2016, and revised guidelines for Management of Municipal Solid Waste was published by Government of India. However, not much research is available on understanding the reasons for the reduced efficiency of street sweeping in cities. Therefore, the primary objective of this article is to understand the factors which influence the efficiency of street cleaning from the perspective of street sweepers. Ahmedabad City being one of the top 10 best performing cities in the Swachh Survekshan, was selected as the case city. 310 street sweepers were selected from 14 different wards using stratified random sampling, where wards of the city were stratified based on gross population density. Focus Group Discussions (FGD) with smaller groups of street sweepers were also conducted. Personal interview of officials from Class 1, Class 2 and Class 3 was also conducted to validate the observations of the survey. It is evident from the study that street sweeping engages a considerable share of human resources and financial resources of the Urban Local Body, and there are multiple factors which affect the efficiency of the service delivery. Some of the prominent reasons are lack of motivation and recognition of the street sweepers, confrontation between sweepers and citizens, bad conditions of the streets and equipment, and diverse character of the settlement along the streets. The severity of some of these factors also reflects poor planning of this service delivery.