How systemic flaws and irregularities derailed garbage collection in Mumbai’s slums

The scheme has been weakened by structural flaws, operational chaos, and systemic irregularities, leading to large gaps between paperwork and reality

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government’s recent decision to order an audit of the Swachcha Mumbai Prabodhan Abhiyan (SMPA) has brought long-standing concerns around the city’s slum sanitation network back into focus.

Mumbai October 02-mumbai's First Advanced Locality Management Establish and Cleaning drive in, Plot 17, Lotus Colony govand i- on Tuesday ,govandi India ,2012 October 02 -(Photo by Praful Gangurde) (Hindustan Times)

The scheme, earlier known as the Dattak Vasti Yojana, was conceived in 2001 to improve hygiene in informal settlements through community participation. It was revamped in 2013 and reintroduced as the SMPA.

The SMPA is critical to Mumbai’s waste-collection chain because it handles the initial collection and transfer of garbage from slum pockets to municipal transport points.

Under the rules, one unit must adopt 150 families—or a population of about 750—and deploy at least 15 sanitation workers. However, it was alleged in the state assembly that many NGOs operating under the scheme employ only five to 10 workers and show inflated numbers on paper, diverting the wages of the remaining workers.

Over a decade after its launch, civic officials from the solid waste management (SWM) department and labour unions said the scheme has been weakened by structural flaws, operational chaos, and systemic irregularities, leading to large gaps between paperwork and reality.

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The state government’s decision to audit the scheme follows a series of complaints alleging corruption and widespread irregularities in the implementation of garbage collection and sanitation services in Mumbai’s slums. The audit is expected to scrutinise the functioning of SMPA units across the city, their staffing patterns, financial records, and the accuracy of data provided by implementing NGOs.

Pattern of failures

Behind the need for such scrutiny lies a pattern of failures that experts say have accumulated over the years. A survey by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on the SMPA scheme stated, “One of the fundamental issues plaguing the system is the mismatch between official data and actual workload. The allocation of SMPA units is based on health ministry surveys and census figures, but the real number of households that workers must service is often significantly higher.”

This discrepancy, officials admitted, has led to chronic understaffing and a widening gap between expectations and outcomes. Workers are further burdened by the breadth of responsibilities assigned to them under the scheme.

SMPA teams are expected to handle door-to-door garbage collection, toilet cleaning, sweeping, drain cleaning, and even conduct awareness campaigns—tasks that SWM officials argued far exceed the modest honorarium they receive. This imbalance, they said, has made it nearly impossible to retain workers or ensure consistent quality.

On the ground, political interference has also distorted operations. Several complaints alleged that elected representatives were influencing the collection of user charges, making an already difficult process even more contentious. “Coupled with behavioural and demographic challenges ranging from densely packed settlements and steep topography to irregular waste disposal habits and a large floating population, the implementation of SMPA has repeatedly fallen short of its intended objectives,” stated the survey report.

Rapid commercialisation inside multi-storey slums has added another twist to the crisis. “With more shops and small enterprises generating waste, the load on sanitation workers has increased, without corresponding revisions in planning or compensation,” said a civic official. “The limited timeframe allotted to SMPA workers each day often bears no relation to the realities of these congested neighbourhoods, making compliance with municipal expectations nearly impossible.”

Labour unions say these systemic gaps have created fertile ground for exploitation. Milind Ranade of the Kachra Vahatuk Shramik Sangh welcomed the government’s move to launch an audit, arguing that the official documentation submitted by NGOs routinely masks the real situation.

“Instead of 10 workers, only five are deployed, and even they are underpaid. The so-called NGOs, who are contractors, claim that slumdwellers volunteer from within the settlements, but many of these so-called volunteers are not even present on site. This scheme is often used as a paper arrangement by groups seeking municipal contracts, while denying genuine slum dwellers their labour rights,” Ranade said.

The BMC has already outlined a set of reforms it believes could stabilise the system, from annual resurveying of slum unit sizes and ensuring longer-term engagement of agencies, to revising honorariums, penalties, and monitoring mechanisms.

As the state government prepares to dig deeper into the failures of SMPA, the audit is expected to reveal whether these recommendations were ignored, inadequately executed, or undermined by the very structures meant to implement them.

“For Mumbai’s slum workers and residents, the findings may finally determine whether the city’s most basic sanitation system can be rebuilt or whether it will continue to collapse under the weight of its long-unaddressed flaws,” added the civic official.