Not just sanitation workers; every citizen has to maintain cleanliness: SC

The Supreme Court has directed education departments across the country to integrate theoretical and practical solid waste management knowledge to train students, underlining that the responsibility to keep the environment clean is not the duty of sanitation workers alone but of every citizen.

“The trained students would function as household-level supervisors. An educated child is the most effective and least coercive instrument for educating a parent or a relative for the implementation of Solid Waste Management (SWM),” said a bench of Justices SVN Bhatti and NV Anjaria on Tuesday. It also called for training teachers as trainers.

The court was dealing with a matter concerning enforcement of the SWM Rules, 2026. It constituted a Supreme Court Monitoring Committee (SCMC) in May comprising secretaries of five Union ministries — housing and urban affairs, environment, forest and climate change, drinking water and sanitation, jal shakti, panchayati raj and rural development. The Central Pollution Control Board member secretary is also part of the panel.

The court directed the district collectors to change the approach and attitude among the citizenry by compelling school and college students to enroll their family members for the implementation of the SWM Rules, 2026.

“It is for their future and health that the student is entrusted with this responsibility,” the court said. It directed the district education departments to conduct periodic audits and submit reports to the district collectors, who would then communicate with the state chief secretaries.

The court warned that continued complacency will lead to pandemic and endemic situations. It said that the prevailing assumption that solid waste is a problem for sanitary workers alone while the rest remain passive generators is neither legally correct nor practically sustainable, and is constitutionally unethical.

The court said India’s population exceeding 1.4 billion presents a huge challenge for SWM. It added that every person, household and institution generates solid waste as an inevitable by-product of life and activity. “The volume and complexity of such waste (biodegradable, non-biodegradable, hazardous, electronic and construction) have outgrown what any single class of workers can be expected to absorb or handle.”

The court emphasised that the infrastructure needs a complete audit and upgradation to meet the standards required under the SWM Rules.

The court’s order came after examining an interim SCMC report additional solicitor general Aishwarya Bhati submitted. The report focuses on steps each ministry is taking.

The court underlined that law can secure cooperation only by prescribing rules and consequences, and cannot by itself generate civic behaviour. “Compliance is achieved only when the individual and institutional generators internalise the obligation.”

The court said the duty of segregation, safe storage, and handover of waste covers every individual, household, institution and establishment. It directed the SCMC to focus on water pollution caused by solid municipal waste.