Flying Vermin Problem, a simple Solution and Decision Making

The government offices are not well known to welcome everyone; however, unknowingly, these offices do welcome dogs, birds, rodents and the likes. Thanks, but no thanks, to the innumerable physical records that prove to be safe havens to these herd of animals or flock of birds, especially, pigeons and rodents. Not to mention the health hazards these animals cause, which usually goes unnoticed. The reasons possibly are: the government does not acknowledge it as a problem at the first place or it is not aware of how to arrive at a solution for the said problem or simply the time has not come yet to address the problem.

Well, I have come across a similar problem at my workplace. I work as a Project Consultant to India Post in Karnataka and with pride I can say that I work in this office — “Beau Lieu” (meaning Beautiful Place in French), which is a heritage building with a rich history in its fold.

There has been a growing problem of pigeons (read “flying vermin”) in our office. From flying precariously in the corridors by dodging the ceiling fans, sitting on the platform next to you or making nests in this wonderful work of architecture — these pigeons have made their presence felt.

As an aspiring public policy practitioner, I had a very different view to this problem. Leaving aside the upheaval created by these birds in the office, the bigger problem is caused because of their faeces carried by their feathers that result in lethal lung infection. Yes, this infection is a threat to ones life.

I apprised about this menace to the concerned officials (read middle management) in December 2017, but, no avail. And, I was not surprised. Either they did not realize the gravity of the problem or they were unable to arrive at the solution or no one was correctly guiding them. My repeated efforts have fallen on deaf ears and the problem continued to persist.

Thankfully, Kingdon’s Schema has come to my rescue to open the closed Policy Window; and, how effectively it worked, I narrate below.

To begin with, the problem was clearly defined. Given the aforementioned problem definition, the problem was brought to the notice of one and all. Thus, the first component was taken care. Importantly, many solutions to this problem were explored by the “concerned officials” but nothing constructive could be arrived at. But, for the nylon anti-bird nets that proved to be simple, cost effective and workable solution. Thus, helping the concerned officials to overcome the second component, i.e., the solution part as per Kingdon’s Schema. Now, with the clearly defined problem and possible solution in hand, I only had to convince the Senior Civil Servants in the top management (read Political) to facilitate them in the decision making process. Thus, by ensuring that the third component was also well taken care.

Considering the end of financial year 2017–18, wherein the government aims as much to exhaust the allocated budget within the financial year, I submitted a seemingly persuasive “narrative” on 22nd March, 2018, to the Chief Postmaster General of Karnataka Circle only to receive his approval on the same evening. I knew the time has come for implementing this idea.

By 28th March, 2018, we all witnessed that nylon net was put across the section of the building that was most affected by these flying vermin.

This experience reiterates the fact that problem definition, solution, political will and timing are extremely essential for addressing any public policy problem. This problem with flying vermin does not have all the characteristics of a typical public policy problem. At the first place, it cannot be compared to a public policy problem, but, I want to emphasize that Kingdon’s Schema did wonders for addressing such a simple problem.