How can one declare an area a rubbish dump without the administrative authority to do so?
All that you need to do is to make regular contributions of rubbish to a spot where you want to locate it. The only additional condition is that your contribution should be sufficiently large to catch the eye of passersby so that they assume that it is an approved site. It seems that there are two categories of those who litter our public spaces: leaders and followers. The leaders have the right to deposit rubbish where they like, they are pioneers. The followers are afraid of being seen to litter and only the brave ones will drop off a candy wrapper or disposable cup when they feel sure that no one [or no one who may possibly object] has seen them.
However, if there is a significant contribution of waste at a specific location, it becomes a ‘free for all’ zone in which anyone may make a contribution. Even then, if it is not a place which is known to be a rubbish dump, locals and timid followers may avoid using it; but if tradition has been established, it can become a difficult task to “de-declare” or de-categorize a location as a dump. What is more remarkable is that withdrawals can be made from a dumping site. Once again, there are leaders and followers. The leaders are habitual at making withdrawals and use these sites as charity corners, where people have deposited rejected items for the needy to pick. Followers often go to these sites only when a leader is present or follow later.
There is a cultural disconnect that is being overlooked by those who possess the ability to change things. Pakistanis tend to fall back on a make-do lifestyle or makeshift interaction with officials when the state fails to deliver. People feel that individuals must answer to Allah. Thus the matter of performing duties is a contract with the Divine, not with society. At the same time if a condition becomes intolerable, individuals may take measures that are within their power if acceptable to the community. Neither the citizens, nor state functionaries are interested in invoking the organs or machinery of state; they are generally content to ignore its alien writ.
Administrative compliance may be achieved by: enforcement, acculturation and education. Enforcement is a short term intensive solution for a large population; or a long term, extensive solution for a small population of offenders. Acculturation is a long term solution for a large population which will fail if a small compliant community is lodged in a large population with a different culture; like the Pakistani modernist elite. Education, like acculturation, needs a long gestation process which should be reinforced by acculturation to be sustainable.
During my childhood people used to talk of throwing rubbish from a house onto the street as a bad habit. Some time ago, I started mowing my own lawn and bought a wheelbarrow to carry the grass to a rubbish heap. My neighbor who owned a buffalo asked me to give him the grass which I cut. The next time when I cut the grass, I started loading it onto the wheelbarrow to take to my neighbor. He heard the sound of the lawnmower, peeped over the wall, and asked me to throw the grass over the wall instead of taking it all the way around to his plot. I told him off for peeping over my wall and expecting me to throw litter over the wall. He was perplexed by my anger. I realized later that we were operating in different cultural norms.
Centuries of cohabiting with the Hindu communities imposed segregation of caste/class. By disposing dump in a public domain, scavenging lower castes could collect waste from high caste household without direct contact. Although caste prohibitions do not operate in a Muslim community, class segregation has not lost its cultural relevance for us in certain circumstances; in fact the social equalization makes ‘over the wall transfers’ more natural and more convenient so long as they do not violate the purda codes of a community. Among the rights and duties of the individual recognized in Pakistan we may include rights of: 1, Family; 2, Community; 3, clan; 4, occupational group; 5, state; 6, nation; 7, religion; 8, country.
