Youth Engagement for E-waste Management by Urban Local Bodies in India

Abstract

The National Youth Policy, 2014 (NYP-2014) aims to empower the youth of the country to achieve their full potential, and through them enable India to find its rightful place in the community of nations. As per the NYP 2014, there is a trend of increasing urbanization and anonymity that characterizes urban life and hence it is all the more important for the government to act as an intermediary and create channels and processes by which young Indians can engage with urban decision makers and contribute to urban governance. To achieve the objectives of the NYP -2014, one of the strategies is Youth engagement. Youth engagement is the result when young people are involved in responsible, challenging actions to create positive social change. Urban governance, in general, has many dimensions and waste management is one of the major problems in urban areas. In particular, E-waste management is emerging as a major problem in India. In this context, the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) have a crucial role in E-waste management. This paper is an attempt to connect the objectives of Youth engagement of the National Youth Policy, 2014 for addressing the issue of E-wastes in India. To achieve this, the paper proposes a model for youth engagement in E-waste management for urban local bodies in India. The main focus of this model is to channelize E-wastes from the informal sector to registered E-waste Recycler/Dismantler. To aid this channelization, organizations like NGOs, Educational Institutes can act as an intermediary. For the working of these organizations in a fruitful manner, the model aims at working towards creating a systematic channel for engagement between the government and young citizens.