At KP, we work towards strengthening the lives and livelihoods of waste pickers. Over the years, our work has evolved with the changing needs and priorities of waste pickers and waste work. We play a range of roles ranging from technical support and capacity building, to running livelihoods programs, to liaising with state and private entities for worker welfare. Our priorities are informed by waste pickers and waste picker collectives. We do not believe in short-term and unsustainable handouts; nor do we step in to provide what should be provided by the state.
Identifying and Integrating waste pickers
Waste pickers may work at landfills or dumpsites, may pick waste from streets, buy waste, or work at establishments like scrap shops. These livelihoods are precarious, and leave workers without any claim to preserving their work. There is also a major trust deficit that needs to be bridged through sustained engagement. A dedicated team at KP works to identify, engage and support these itinerant waste pickers to access social entitlements, and to transition into semi-formal and formal waste work. In the last few years, we have supported 300+ waste pickers to transition into SWaCH as waste collectors. This year, KP has been empaneled under the NAMASTE scheme to enumerate waste pickers and support them to set up waste centres.
Accessing government entitlements
Waste pickers’ occupation, caste, and gender-based vulnerabilities, coupled with the contribution of their work to the environment and solid waste management has been the basis for their inclusion in several central, state and city government welfare schemes. In 2001, waste pickers children were included under the central government’s pre matric scholarship. In 2002, the Pune Municipal Corporation started covering the premium of Jan Arogya Policy which became the first waste picker health insurance program. Later, a comprehensive welfare package for waste pickers was introduced by the PMC and PCMC in 2015 and 2024, covering health, education, and social security. However, lack of information, changes to schemes, challenging eligibility criteria, cumbersome documentation, complicated enrolment procedures, and institutional failures leave many waste pickers without access to their entitlements. Our social welfare team works to ensure all waste pickers are aware of, enrolled in and accessing welfare schemes.
The Helpdesk
The ‘Kashtakari Help Desk’, launched in 2019, is a hub and spoke mechanism that links waste pickers to both public and private service delivery systems. It is a one-stop shop where waste pickers can call in for urgent support in emergent medical situations, for support to access government schemes, for work-related grievances, for household disputes, for financial assistance, for advice on education of their children, legal advice and more. A team of karyakartas, the community-based arm of the Helpdesk, works closely with waste pickers in the community to identify and resolve grievances.
Education
Systemic exclusion from education has been a reality for most women and most waste pickers. Their biggest hope for the future, is a different life for their children. We are working towards a future where waste pickers’ children are empowered to engage in occupations of their choice. We run several programs to support children to enroll and stay in school. Each year, we support the most vulnerable children (orphans and girl children) with sponsorships to cover their schooling costs. We reward students who stay in school and complete higher education, and host a program dedicated to Savitribai Phule and Jyotirao Phule each year to celebrate the educated children of our waste pickers and build a culture that values education. We also engage with drop out students, support children to take remedial classes, vocational training and support the next generation to secure jobs including jobs with us.
Strengthening Waste Collection
Under the aegis of SWaCH, more than 3,900 waste pickers are formally integrated into the city’s municipal solid waste management system as waste collectors. We support the waste picker members of SWaCH by providing training and other direct support to enhance their livelihoods. Over the past few years, KP has provided 1,000+ waste pickers with secure material sorting and storage spaces, deployed across 280 locations in Pune city. The provision of such a space allows a waste picker to recover more recyclables, thus increasing her income and enhancing the environmental impacts of her work.
We strive to ensure that waste pickers are able to maximise their earnings from waste. This includes connecting waste pickers with vendors for old clothes, hair, dried grains and more. Where waste pickers are engaged in these, they earn an incremental Rs. 500 each month from waste.
Where waste pickers require additional PPE, modifications to their equipment or suffer due to delays in obtaining equipment and PPE from the municipality, KP steps in to provide support to ensure that waste pickers can continue their work. KP also engages with citizens to increase awareness about Pune’s waste pickers and waste collection system, and to ensure that citizens are properly segregating their waste.
Wet waste management
Wet waste is 76% of household waste and hyper decentralized at-source wet waste composting and biomethanation holds major livelihoods potential for the future. In Pune, bulk waste generators (residential or commercial establishments generating 70+kg of waste per day) are mandated to process their wet waste at source. Most fail to do so due to lack of awareness, weak enforcement of the mandate and inadequate space. We proposed to fill this gap through an incentive system to support waste generators to shift to managing their waste at-source. We train waste pickers, provide equipment and ensure that the waste generator is committed to engaging the waste pickers at fair user fees for at least 2 years. This shift eliminates 10% of the cost and 15% of the pollution caused by solid waste management and generates 3.6 livelihoods per tonne of wet waste. So far, we have been able to create livelihoods for 170+ waste pickers across 280 composting and biomethanation sites.
Scaling the recycling value chain
To correct power imbalances in the recycling sector, support women-led enterprises, and strengthen waste pickers’ capacities, we have helped waste pickers establish democratically managed scrap centres. These shops give waste pickers full control over their scrap, full control over the operational and financial workings of the enterprise and augment their incomes. Today, three such shops increase the annual incomes of 300 women owners by an average of 15%. KP supports these cooperatives with technical assistance, support during times of crises, training in accounting and bookkeeping, and capacity building for participatory governance. Taking this a step further, KP is now supporting waste pickers to set-up and manage their own collection and recycling units for plastic waste through a project supported by the European Commission. These initiatives intend to increase the substantive participation of women waste pickers in the recycling chain and augment the capacities of the informal sector.
Recycling the non-recyclable
In Pune, waste pickers have demonstrated that they can design and anchor solutions that address the plastic waste crisis as a whole, holding corporates accountable for their products and pushing the boundaries of recycling. In partnership with ITC Limited, KP supports more than 750 waste pickers to reclaim multi-layered plastics for recycling. Each waste picker earns an additional Rs. 750 per month from this plastic alone. Over the past 3 years, more than 42,00,000 kg (that’s 84 Crore chips packets!) have been diverted away from the landfill and sent for recycling. 30 full time jobs are created at the sorting and baling unit through this work.
Strengthening waste picker collectives
We augment the work of waste picker collectives by incubating new initiatives, supporting growth of the work, disseminating learnings, providing technical support and partnering for various initiatives. We have supported the growth of SWaCH, the expansion of the Reuse centre (VCollect), encouraged better savings from waste picker members of the credit cooperative, convened consultations and lead policy initiatives of the Alliance of India Waste pickers.
Capacity building
Capacity building is central to scaling the value chain, exploring new livelihoods, and strengthening democratic governance and self-representation. At KP, capacity building is not limited to a separate area of work – our work and our staff are directly accountable to waste pickers, actively involving them in governance, and supporting waste pickers to meaningfully engage. We also conduct regular capacity-building programs focused on community leadership, policy awareness, climate change and plastics, challenging superstitions, fostering critical thinking, and empowering women.
Research
The informal recycling economy, realities of waste management, perspectives of workers, the nature of informal work and the challenges of accessing social welfare remain poorly undocumented. This an impediment to policymakers, and can have detrimental impacts on workers in the informal economy. We undertake research on waste work, recycling, welfare, women, and informal work. We also conduct studies to better understand emerging livelihoods opportunities, waste sector and material circularity. We aim to highlight waste pickers’ contributions, explore future livelihood opportunities, support policy makers and shape the discourse on waste management. Our research priorities are informed by, and all research conducted in partnership with waste pickers.
Emergency relief
In times of crises, like floods, fires, pandemics, we step in to provide emergency relief including cash transfers, rations, support for medical care, interest free loans and more.