How will poor people afford this? Supreme Court on fees for collection of sanitary waste

The Supreme Court on Tuesday expressed concern over the collection of user fees by municipal bodies of different states and union territories (UTs) for the collection of sanitary waste [Indu Varma v. Union of India]..A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan was of the view that there has to be segregation between solid waste and sanitary waste, and that collection of the latter should not incur any fee.When the State of Kerala submitted that it is charging the fee as per Rule 3(15) of Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, Justice Kant remarked,"How will the poor, middle-class children and people be able to afford these charges? We need to have a pragmatic approach. We would be requiring the assistance of Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Bhati. Sanitary waste can be segregated from other wastes. There can't be any charge. For solid waste, you can go ahead right now. But as far as sanitary pads (as sanitary waste) are concerned, we would like to pass a comprehensive order."The petitioner-in-person argued that under the 2016 Rules, 'sanitary waste' comes under the ambit of solid waste..The Court said that it cannot pass any omnibus order without having the requisite details. It, therefore, asked the petitioner to make a small chart highlighting how the levying of this fee has to be managed."We will request you to make a small chart where according to you these would be categories where charges can be levied, where some charge can be levied and where nothing can be imposed...Identify the categories that are to be exempted. The school-going children, young people or old people, poor and marginalised, people who are living in huts have to be considered as well...We are only on the sanitary part," Justice Kant told the petitioner..The Court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by one Indu Varma mainly challenging the non-collection of sanitary waste from households. The plea stated that the Kochi Municipal Corporation is forcing the residents of the city to approach a third-party and pay per-weight user fee for the disposal of sanitary waste.On May 7, considering it to be a pan-india issue, the Court had added other states and UTs as parties to the petition. It had also directed the states and UTs to file their counter-affidavits on the issue..Today, the Bench was informed that only five out of fifteen states and UTs have filed their counter-affidavits in the matter.When the Court asked for the stand of the Central government on this issue, ASG Aishwarya Bhati submitted,"The Union has only a policy stand on this issue as per Constitution. We have cited the articles of the Constitution in our affidavit as well. This issue is in State List so the states throughout are looking into this.".The Court directed the remaining states and UTs to file their counter-affidavits by the next date of hearing in August..[Read Live Coverage]