Pune:
Women will soon be driving garbage collection vans and visiting houses of 54 wards in the Pimpri-Chinchwad area to collect waste.
The Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) and Solid Waste Collection and Handling (SWaCH), an NGO, have signed a memorandum of understanding in this regard.
About 47 women completed their month-long training in driving skills organised by Tata Motors Ltd on Monday.
At a programme attended by the PCMC commissioner, Ashish Sharma; Tata Motors vice-president, Satish Borwankar; and the company's general manager (human resources), Prashant Ahir; these women were presented certificates and driving licences.
Asmita Kamble, one of the woman drivers, said it's a dream come true for her to learn how to drive a vehicle. "Since childhood, I wanted to learn driving and now I got the opportunity. We promise to carry out the garbage collection duty honestly," she said.
Sharma said SWaCH will start collecting garbage from the PCMC area. "Our main intention of providing vehicles to these women is that the civic body wanted to increase the efficiency of waste pickers. It helps to generate employment for women also," he said.
The PCMC would provide training in driving skills to 60 other women in a phased manner at a later stage.
Borwankar said, "The training given to these women will help in reducing health hazards." Ahir said a health check-up and health awareness programme was also conducted for these women.
The Centre has approved the purchase of 362 vehicles under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) scheme for house-to-house collection, transportation, treatment and disposal of garbage, with a total expenditure of Rs70.34 crore.
Under the public-private partnership (PPP) project being implemented by the PCMC and SWaCH, the civic body will provide vehicles, while volunteers from SWaCH will operate them and collect garbage from houses in the municipal limits.
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