Waste picking in India continues to be a caste-based, informal occupation, riddled with systemic oppression, inhumane treatment, and general disdain towards the workers involved. In Pune, it is primarily undertaken by Dalit women, particularly from the Mahar and Matang castes. The families of many of today’s waste pickers migrated to the city during periods of economic distress, such as the drought of 1972, with next to nothing to their name. Caste discrimination restricted their access to other forms of employment, making waste picking a viable alternative. It offered them a greater sense of dignity and and independence than construction or domestic labor work, which often subjected women to feudal and exploitative relationships. Despite their crucial role in the city’s waste management, waste pickers were largely unrecognized, facing social exclusion, police harassment, hazardous working conditions, and economic exploitation by scrap traders.
A turning point came in 1993 with the formation of Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPKP), a trade union that organized waste pickers, itinerant buyers, and allied informal workers. KKPKP’s efforts were driven by the realization that collective action was necessary to secure waste pickers’ rights and livelihoods. Inspired by labor organizing strategies of veteran activist Dr. Baba Adhav, KKPKP sought to challenge the perception of waste picking as mere scavenging and instead asserted that it was a legitimate form of labor. Through demonstrations, advocacy, and legal battles, the union successfully campaigned for municipal recognition. A major milestone was achieved in 1995-96 when Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporations endorsed photo-identity cards for waste pickers, formally authorizing them to collect recyclables–the very first to do so in the nation.
Building on this recognition, KKPKP undertook extensive research to quantify the economic and environmental contributions of waste pickers. In 2001, Poornima Chikarmane, Dr Medha Deshpande, and Lakshmi Narayanan’s landmark ILO report “Study of Scrap Collectors, Scrap Traders, and Recycling Enterprises in Pune” showed that waste pickers saved the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) an estimated $316,455 in annual waste transport costs, diverting 118,000 metric tons of recyclables from landfills each year. These findings strengthened the case for the formal integration of waste pickers into municipal waste management. In response to persistent advocacy, Pune became one of the first Indian cities to integrate waste pickers into door-to-door waste collection services under the Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000. The PMC also introduced municipal-funded medical insurance schemes for waste pickers, acknowledging their occupational hazards.
Recognizing that legal recognition alone was insufficient to challenge systemic economic exploitation, KKPKP established a series of interventions aimed at improving the financial stability of waste pickers. In 1997, the Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Nagri Sahakari Pat Sanstha (Path Pedi), a savings-linked credit cooperative, was formed to provide waste pickers with an alternative to predatory moneylenders (malwaris). The cooperative, managed by KKPKP members, offered loans at reasonable rates, with savings and guarantor-based lending mechanisms.
Parallelly, in 1998, KKPKP established Pune’s first cooperative scrap shop, Kashtachi Kamai, to ensure fair pricing for recyclables. This initiative directly addressed the power imbalance in the scrap trade, where traders dictated arbitrary prices and often shortchanged waste pickers. The shop operated on principles of cash-only transactions, transparent pricing, and profit-sharing among members, marking a critical step toward economic self-sufficiency. Through these efforts, KKPKP not only secured legal and economic recognition for waste pickers but also fundamentally reshaped their role in urban waste management. By reframing waste picking as an environmentally and economically valuable service, the union successfully challenged entrenched inequalities and expanded opportunities for social and financial mobility among some of Pune’s most marginalized workers.
A landmark moment came in 2007 with the establishment of SWaCH (Solid Waste Collection and Handling) Cooperative, India’s first wholly waste picker-owned cooperative. SWaCH revolutionized waste collection in Pune by offering a user-fee-based model, wherein waste pickers directly collected payments from households instead of relying on contractors. This model ensured better wages, job security, and independence from middlemen, leading to higher incomes. Today, SWaCH covers over 900,000 households and has expanded into allied activities such as composting, e-waste collection, and plastic recycling. By eliminating intermediaries and advocating for decentralized waste management, SWaCH has empowered waste pickers to take charge of their own livelihoods.
To further support the work of KKPKP and SWaCH, Kashtakari Panchayat (KP) was established in 2010. Unlike KKPKP, which functions as a trade union, KP was registered as an organization to provide financial support, training, facilitation, and research for waste pickers and their families. KP acts as a bridge between waste pickers and institutional resources, offering capacity-building programs and helping them integrate into higher-value recycling activities. Recognizing that waste pickers are often displaced by formal waste management systems, KP actively works to mitigate these impacts by securing safe workspaces, enhancing earnings, and promoting alternative economic opportunities. KP has also played a crucial role in corporate accountability efforts, conducting brand audits and holding major polluters accountable for their contributions to plastic waste. Read more about our work here.
Today, Pune’s waste picker movement stands as a global model for worker-led waste management and an example of how grassroots organizing can drive systemic change in urban sustainability. Yet, despite these successes, waste pickers in Pune continue to face challenges. Waste privatization is a rising threat, as large corporations have started to realise the value in waste–a fact waste pickers have known for decades. This has serious implications on the informal waste economy. With this in mind, KP will strive to work for better living and working conditions for waste pickers and their children. We will keep developing innovative livelihood projects and push for diversification of waste picker income streams. And most importantly, we will continue to push for formal recognition of waste pickers in national climate policies, ensuring that their contributions to environmental sustainability are acknowledged and rewarded.