WUNRN
Women's Feature Service
As they sift through garbage, India waste
pickers, who are mostly
women, have to fend off stray animals, their hands get wounded by
shards of broken glass thrown carelessly in the rubbish, and
harassment by the police is part of their daily routine. (Credit: Amit
Thavaraj)
By
Suchismita Pai
Pune (Women's Feature
Service) – As they sift through garbage, they have to fend off rodents and
stray animals, their hands get wounded by shards of broken glass thrown
carelessly in the rubbish, and harassment by the police is part of their daily
routine. In
Scrap collection is
considered socially relevant, economically productive and environmentally
beneficial "work". In fact,
Unfortunately,
despite their very significant function in society, these self-employed women
occupy the lowest rung in the informal economy and are generally treated with
contempt. In Pune, however, waste pickers have discovered that there is
strength in a union.
The process of
transformation started in May 1993 when veteran labour leader, Dr Baba Adhav
organised a first-of-its-kind 'Convention of Waste Pickers' in Pune in a bid to
enable them to fight for their rights as legitimate workers and rally for a
better future for their children. This meet was attended by over 800 waste
pickers from across the city, and from this process emerged the Kagad Kach
Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPKP), a union of scrap collectors. "Every
woman in the union is amazing," remarks Lakshmi Narayan, General Secretary
of KKPKP.
A chance meeting with
a child waste picker during an academic exercise in 1990 led Narayan and
Poornima Chikarmane, an activist and academic, to delve deeper into the lives
of these workers. The women, they realised, did not even think of their
back-breaking labour as 'work', but were keen that their next generation be
educated.
What was needed was a
change in their dismal working conditions as well as powers to negotiate a
better income. Knowing that the collection and segregation of scrap at source
could offer both, Narayan and Chikarmane helped 30 waste pickers to get an
identity card from
The KKPKP proved to
be a perfect platform. Once registered as a trade union, it not only
represented the collective identity and interests of scrap collectors, it also
gave them a platform to voice their grievances and concerns. And unlike
conventional unions, it has also focused on social development activities such
as credit provision, education and child labour issues.
Suman Mariba More,
who is in her 40s, recalls how she would toil from dawn to dusk, walking for
miles with her sack to collect scrap and sort it with the help of her children.
"All that changed after 1993 when I joined the union. Now I work four
hours and I get more money since I collect waste from door-to-door. The quality
and condition of waste is much better," she says.
Door-to-door
collection has social benefits as well. Simple pleasures like a cup of tea, a
friendly chat or proper lunch breaks, in addition to getting soap to wash their
hands and feet are just some of the unsaid benefits.
Over the years, the
KKPKP has evolved with the growing needs of its 9,000-plus members, 80 per cent
of who are marginalised women. Their identity card, endorsed by the Pune
Municipal Corporation (PMC), entitles them to benefits like interest-free loans
and educational support for children. Two insurance progammes have also been
started for them. For life insurance, members pay a yearly fee of Rs 50 while
the state government matches that sum and the central government contributes Rs
100. There is also a medical cover of Rs 5,000, the premium for which is paid
by the PMC.
For More, a higher
income and health insurance has meant that she can afford proper medical care
instead of indulging in self-medication. Not only are her sons educated, her
daughter-in-law is a computer engineer from a Brahmin family. Even her daughter
was married off only after she turned 18 and "that too with no dowry"
declares More proudly. Where her work is concerned, she no longer segregates
the waste at home but goes to her nearest municipal corporation provided
sorting shed.
The KKPKP takes a
keen interest in the welfare of its members – be it when it aided 72 families
of a ‘basti’ displaced under the Rajiv Awas Yogana rehabilitation scheme in
2009 or ensuring the enrolment of elderly members eligible for the Indira
Gandhi pension plan. Says Maitreyi Shankar, Treasurer, KKPKP, "Enrolling
in state schemes can be tedious. On an average, it takes at least 15 man days
to put all the required documentation together. We assist them every step of
the way."
For the KKPKP, it has
been hard work building up a reputation. Says Narayan, "Ensuring that
waste pickers as well as the larger society saw this as work was the beginning.
We had to quantify their actual contribution to the solid waste management
(SWM) system. A study to prove that they indeed save the Pune and Pimpri
Chinchwad Municipal Corporations several crore rupees in waste handling costs
was undertaken and it proved beyond doubt that these recovery operations were
extremely valuable."
Armed with hard
numbers, the KKPKP called for an integration of waste pickers in the waste
collection/disposal system at the point of waste generation itself - that is,
access to waste in homes, offices or businesses. The Management of Solid Waste
laws of 2000, requiring segregation of wet and dry waste, door to door waste
collection (DTDC) and processing, proved beneficial. In 2005, the KKPKP launched
a pilot programme with the PMC, where waste pickers were integrated in DTDC
work, paving the way for the establishment of SWaCH, a wholly workers' owned
cooperative.
The SWaCH DTDC
initiative - based on recovery of fee from service users and provision of
infrastructure support by the municipality - brings together two interests:
Upgrading the livelihood of waste pickers and sustainable solid waste
management. Through its 2,150 members, most of who belong to KKPKP, SWaCH
services over 390,000 households in 15 municipal administrative wards of the
PMC.
Work benefits apart,
last year, under the Right to Education Act, over 100 children and grand
children of KKPKP members were enrolled in good local schools; this year
efforts are on to raise the number to over 150. Further, a training programme
to educate members on the cash transfer for ration and LPG schemes linked to
the Aadhaar card has been initiated. "It's all about dignity, respect and
quality of life," emphasises Narayan.
Waste pickers have come
a long way but many challenges still remain. Narayan says, "The fee for
waste collection is as low as Rs 10 or Rs 20 and yet women do not get paid on
time. People expect a high level of professionalism from these women without
paying them their professional due." When 70 waste pickers were cheated
out of half their daily wages by one of the contractors, KKPKP members had held
a peaceful 'dharna' in March 2013 to resolve the issue. While that hurdle has
now been crossed, there are always newer battles to be fought. As Narayan puts
it, "It's never over.”