According to a recently released joint study by Assocham-KPMG, telecom equipment accounts for 12 per cent of e-waste that is generated in the country. Here it should be noted that India is the first largest e-waste producer in the world with 18.5 lakh metric tonnes of electronic waste each year. India is also the second largest mobile market globally with 1.03 billion subscribers.
According to the study, India has more than 100 crore mobile phones in circulation and 25 per cent of those turn as e-wastes every year. The study says that India needs to introduce phased manner for implementation of e-waste collection targets. The guidelines should be issued by DoT with respect to locations of tower and clearance requirements should be adopted across states to smoothen tower set up process.
India has been reeling under immense pressure to handle e-waste issue as it is a serious health hazard that government wants to counter. There is no organised market for e-waste collection and this leads to major health hazards for the country. The study said a detailed implementation of procedures for collection of e-waste from the market needs to be followed.
By Atanu Kumar Das
