INDIA: Second Policy Roundtable on marine litter prevention in India

The second policy roundtable was held on 26 July 2022 in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. This event was a follow-up to the first policy roundtable held on 5 April 2022 where participants discussed the current challenges and gaps in policies for India (Kerala) to prevent marine litter. The event was attended by stakeholders from local government agencies, research and academic organizations, bilateral agencies and NGOs. 

The second policy roundtable event involved solution prototyping where participants focused on policy benchmarking (best cases) and the potential adaptation to the Indian context. They further designed and developed policy prototype solutions for the challenges that were identified in the first roundtable.

The groups came up with two main solutions:

•           Formation of 'District level Task Force for Single Use Plastics (SUP) ban' to support effective implementation of SUP ban mandates.

•           Design of 'Capacity Building Programmes for Sanitation Committees', to train ward-level sanitation committees on Waste Management regulations and effective enforcement (awareness creation).

The solution developed for the single-use plastics ban was to create a district-level task force that would oversee the implementation of legislation as well as buy back, incentives and promote awareness about alternatives available.  The task force would involve different stakeholders and would use user-friendly options such as apps and toll-free numbers to make it easy for individuals and commercial entities to reach out to them. In awareness creation, the solution developed was to increase the capacity of the sanitation committee which would then create door-to-door awareness among the community on source segregation and waste management. Existing schemes and funds with Kerala State Pollution Control Board, Suchitwa Mission, and Haritha Keralam Mission would be involved in the solution.