Discuss the role of Urban Local Bodies and behaviour change in achieving 'Garbage Free Cities'. What structural constraints remain?

Swachh Bharat Mission–Urban 2.0 (2021–26) aims to make every city 'Garbage Free'. It relies on 100% source segregation, door-to-door collection and scientific processing, with an outlay of ₹1,41,600 crore [1]. Two things decide whether this happens: Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), which deliver the service, and citizens, whose daily habits produce the waste.

Role of Urban Local Bodies

• Constitutional mandate: under the 74th Amendment, 1992, solid waste management is a 12th Schedule function. This makes ULBs responsible for collecting, transporting and processing waste [5].
• Service delivery: ULBs run collection systems, Material Recovery Facilities and composting plants for the four streams required by the SWM Rules, 2026 [4].
• Legacy waste: ULBs carry out dumpsite clean-up under Lakshya Zero Dumpsite. Work is under way at 1,428 dumpsites [6].
• Planning: PRAGATI-50 asks States and ULBs to prepare micro-level action plans under a "City as a Whole" approach, tracked on the Swachhatam Portal [2].

Role of behaviour change

• Segregation at source: infrastructure alone cannot enforce it. Households must sort waste into wet, dry, sanitary and special care streams [4].
• Jan andolan: the National Behaviour Change Communication Framework guides cities on mass-media and door-to-door campaigns [3]. The new Behaviour Change Digital Kosh builds on this work [2].
• Citizen feedback: residents can report lapses through the Swachhata App, which now also runs as a WhatsApp channel [2].

Structural constraints that remain

• Weak devolution: the CAG looked at 18 States. Most had formally transferred the 18 functions, but only 4 were devolved with full autonomy [5].
• Fiscal stress: on average, ULBs raise only about a third of their revenue themselves [5]. The Centre pays ₹36,465 crore, about a quarter of the SBM-U 2.0 outlay [1], so States and ULBs must find the rest.
• Manpower control: ULBs have limited power over staff. The CAG recommended giving them adequate powers over manpower [5].
• Unfinished legacy task: the mission period ends in 2026, but only a little over 62% of legacy waste has been processed [6].
• Harder compliance: four-stream segregation needs separate vehicles and facilities, which strains smaller ULBs [4].
• Top-down monitoring: central reviews can find gaps, but cities without powers or funds cannot act on them.

Garbage Free Cities need both capable ULBs and engaged citizens. The way forward is to hand over sanitation staff and funds to ULBs as the CAG recommends, link mission funding to four-stream compliance, and keep citizen participation going after campaigns end. This would fulfil the spirit of Article 243W and help meet SDG 11.6.