In an ad campaign called #TwoBinsLifeWins under their Garima mission, Tata shines light upon the importance of segregating biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste. The ad features a young boy giving a speech in school where he talks about how his father, a sanitation worker is the one who really runs the country and without people like him, the whole country would come to a staggering standstill. He goes on to talk about how his father is required to jump into the sewers and Drains to segregate our waste because we are too lazy to do it. The ad unabashedly shows the gruesome reality of how a certain section of society is forever banished to doing the dirty work no one else wants to do.

There are provisions in the constitution that prohibit manual scavenging but the ground reality is that it is still widely prevalent in our country and the governments have only encouraged it further as it is a cheaper alternative. Besides, the equipment used by these sanitation workers fails to meet the safety criteria and this leads to around 50-80 deaths among sanitation workers in India every year. Tata, through its mission Garima, has aimed to provide better personal protective equipment(PPE) and resources for the sanitation workers who have to jump straight into the drains and sewers to separate the mangled waste that the cities of India create day in and day out, so they can also experience a life of dignity. However, the root of the matter is that this still doesn’t address the predominant issue that is eliminating manual scavenging for good, which should be the goal in the first place. Despite this, we must appreciate the fact that Tata is taking small effective steps towards it, something the governments have failed to do for decades. Their heart-warming campaign #TwoBinsLifeWins does its part in raising awareness about waste segregation with both grace and gusto.

The campaign may not be the ultimate solution but it proves to be a step in the direction of eliminating the need for manual scavenging by building awareness. Here is a look at the advertisement.