Kashtakari Panchayat is an organisation working with and for waste pickers.

Waste pickers make a living collecting, sorting, cleaning, compressing, refurbishing, aggregating, transporting and recycling materials that others throw away. It is the labour of waste pickers that turns discarded waste into raw materials that re-enter the materials economy for reuse and recycling. Every kilogram of waste reclaimed by a waste picker, is one kilogram less for the municipal waste management system to handle. The work of waste pickers contributes to local economies, public health and environmental sustainability. Yet, they have been treated like the waste the handle, and remained at the fringes of society. Across the world, it has been the most marginalised and vulnerable communities that turn to this occupation – one which has no barrier to entry, and one that no one with another option would turn to. In Pune, most waste pickers are women, and hail from dalit (hitherto ‘untouchable’) castes. 

Over the past few decades, Pune’s waste pickers have forged a path toward reclaiming their lives and livelihoods. Kashtakari Panchayat was established to support their journey, strengthening waste pickers and their collectives in their pursuit of self-determination and empowerment.

Kashtakari Panchayat emerged to address the financial, technical, administrative and legal needs of waste pickers’ collectives, and functions as a bridge facilitating dialogue and linkages between them, strengthening both the work of individual waste pickers and their collectives. Today, we have several social welfare programs including a helpdesk service for waste pickers, programs to enable education of their children, support to access government schemes, emergency support and more. Our livelihoods practice is designed to strengthen waste picker livelihoods within, support transitions into formal and semi-formal work in waste, empower waste pickers to occupy higher echelons within the recycling space, and operate sustainable enterprises that promote reuse and recycling. We run training and capacity building programs for waste pickers, undertake research about waste workers, waste and welfare, and strive to bring visibility to the work of waste pickers.