Garbage to gold rush: How India can create jobs by cleaning up pollution

At its core, MNREGA (and now G RAM G) was designed to create employment through development-oriented public works. But today, the scheme can be turned into a reform that makes real impact. The government has an opportunity to expand its remit and deploy it in a sector that can simultaneously address unemployment, pollution, public health and waste management.

India’s Garbage Crisis Is an Economic Opportunity

India’s roadsides, villages, open plots, and urban settlements are drowning in waste. Ground-level collection remains poor, segregation is limited, and open burning of garbage continues to poison air, soil, and water.

But what if garbage were treated not as a liability, but as an economic resource?

If G RAM G were redesigned to incentivise waste collection and environmentally safe disposal, it could tackle critical environmental challenges while dramatically improving the cleanliness and livability of both rural and urban spaces.

Turning Garbage Into a Gold Rush

One possible approach would be to establish a minimum base price for waste collection, effectively converting garbage into a monetisable asset. Citizens could be paid based on the quantity of waste collected and delivered to authorised recycling or disposal centres.

Over time, this could evolve into a gig-economy-style employment model, where effort directly translates into income. For millions of unemployed or underemployed, garbage disposal could become a gold rush—a livelihood opportunity hiding in plain sight.

Why This Is Not Fiscally Unrealistic

Given the scale of government spending on welfare (from free food rations for nearly 80 crore citizens to multiple state-level cash transfer schemes), an incentive-based waste management model is not fiscally implausible. In fact, such a programme could be seamlessly integrated with the Swachh Bharat Mission, ensuring that government spending delivers visible, outcome-driven results rather than one-time benefits.

The Role of Corporates and CSR

To support this ecosystem, the government could encourage large corporates to set up pollution-free waste processing and disposal facilities under their CSR obligations.

Pilot projects could be launched in major tourist circuits, where cleanliness directly affects footfall, revenue, and India’s global image.

Clean Cities, Better Tourism, Healthier India

As India’s cities, towns, and villages continue to expand, the waste management challenge will only intensify. Today, poor sanitation and dirty public spaces, especially in high-footfall tourist areas, remain a key reason many international tourists avoid India.

Cleaner cities would not only improve public health outcomes but also make India more tourism-friendly and globally competitive.

A Reform With Multiple Dividends

By leveraging G RAM G to formalise and incentivise waste collection and disposal, the government can generate large-scale employment, revive rural demand, improve public health, and boost tourism—while addressing one of India’s most pressing environmental challenges.

Turning garbage into a gold rush is not just an idea whose time has come. It may be one of the most practical and high-impact reforms India can undertake today.

Views expressed are personal.