Hyderabad: Filed for divorce? Hear a lecture on waste first

Hyderabad: The GHMC has unveiled a rather bizarre plan to get waste segregation going in city. ‘Let’s unite families and divide waste’ is the GHMC’s new campaign call, aimed to encourage people to segregate their wet and dry garbage.

The corporation plans to invite ‘troubled’ families — couples who have separated or those who have applied for divorce — for counselling. It is during this counselling, that the GHMC will plug their waste segregation theme. The civic body will ask the couples to stay together, and split their rubbish.  

GHMC commissioner B. Janardhan Reddy says this theme will even save India.
“In the West, the divorce rate is alarmingly high and our country seems to be catching up. But we Indians should not fall prey to this Western culture. The GHMC has initiated what can be described as an intervention — to unite families. They can instead divide waste. If something needs to be separated it is the waste, not families,” said the commissioner.

But the move has attracted some mockery from sceptics. Many are wondering how couples — caught in the middle of deep personal crises — will receive a lecture on why gravy should be separated from sheets of paper.

Supreme Court advocate Ms S. Vani said, “Divorce is a private matter. No couple would want to discuss the details outside of court. In fact, they even have the right to confidentiality. How can this be used alongside garbage? The discussion by the civic authorities will also impact children. And parents, or children, will not be very comfortable discussing all these matters with the agency responsible for cleaning out garbage in the city.”

The GHMC has even compiled data — ranking Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata as cities with the highest divorce cases.