In this second section, we will examine the dynamics of social and civic mobilization emerging around waste pickers, as well as their demands for greater recognition of their role. This reflection will explore possible pathways toward a more equitable waste management system, where dignity, inclusion, and resilience become central pillars of urban governance.
You can read part 1 here
Delhi’s Waste Crisis and the People Behind It
In response to structural exclusion and everyday insecurity, waste pickers are increasingly turning to collective organization as a strategy for survival and recognition.
Since the 1990s, waste pickers across India have organized themselves to demand recognition of their work and improve their living and working conditions. These movements emerged in response to exclusionary urban policies and the growing privatization of waste management, which threatened their already fragile livelihoods. Over time, groups such as Chintan, Safai Sena, and others have become important advocates for the rights and dignity of informal workers.
Their collective action has increased their visibility, strengthened their bargaining power, and encouraged dialogue with local authorities. Despite limited institutional support, these community-led initiatives continue to defend waste pickers’ access to resources and promote more inclusive urban policies. This collective mobilization also takes a very concrete form on the ground in Delhi itself.
At Delhi’s major railway stations, a partnership between the Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group and Safai Sena demonstrates how organized waste pickers can transform urban waste management into a system that supports both communities and the environment. At New Delhi Railway Station, one of India’s busiest stations, with more than 300 trains and approximately 360,000 passengers passing through each day, the initiative operates a Material Recovery Facility (MRF) where waste is collected from platforms, offices, and vendor areas, then sorted, composted, and recycled.
Each day, the team processes more than four tonnes of waste in total. Of this amount, approximately 100 kilograms of organic waste are composted daily, allowing nearly three tonnes of waste per month to be diverted from landfills through composting alone. Recyclable materials such as paper, plastics, and metals are sold to support livelihoods. Through this system, the program has created 74 stable jobs for former informal waste pickers, who now work in safer and cleaner conditions, with access to protective equipment, health camps, and educational opportunities for their children.
Beyond these concrete outcomes, this model also highlights the strength of collective action. Through informal unions and NGO advocacy, India’s rag pickers have gained greater visibility, bargaining power, and recognition within Delhi’s municipal waste management system. This provides strong evidence that community-based initiatives can reconcile environmental responsibility with social equity (see p. 39 in the PDF).
Delhi’s experience demonstrates how civil society alliances can help waste workers achieve recognition, even without direct integration into municipal systems, while the city of Pune offers a different but complementary pathway. Together, these two cases reveal distinct yet equally significant trajectories toward inclusion: one based on grassroots organization, and the other on formal institutional partnerships.
Building on the example of Delhi, where the Chintan–Safai Sena partnership has demonstrated how organized waste pickers can gain visibility and economic stability, the experience of Pune offers a more advanced model of municipal integration. In Pune, the SWaCH cooperative has become a cornerstone of the city’s waste management system and one of India’s most recognized examples of decentralized, women-led urban governance. Emerging from the Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPKP) union, SWaCH signed a formal agreement with the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) in 2008 to establish a city-wide door-to-door waste collection service. More than 2,300 waste pickers, the majority of whom are women, have been organized to serve households, businesses, and small enterprises across 80 municipal wards (see p. 42 in the PDF).
The PMC supported this system by providing equipment, uniforms, and access to health insurance, while workers generated income through a modest user service fee and the sale of recyclable materials. Today, the cooperative processes approximately 600 tonnes of waste per day, a significant portion of which is composted and recycled, reducing pressure on Pune’s landfills. Beyond its environmental impact, this model has provided thousands of workers with stable livelihoods, safer working conditions, and access to healthcare, banking services, and educational programs. Although source segregation remains a challenge, SWaCH represents a powerful example of how municipal collaboration and collective organization can transform environmental responsibility into genuine social justice.
Across India, local NGOs are actively working to implement national waste management guidelines and ensure that the needs of these workers are fully integrated into the recycling chain. Looking ahead, attention has increasingly focused on the implementation of frameworks such as the Swachh Bharat Mission Urban 2.0, launched in October 2021 and still ongoing, which aims to make Indian cities “garbage-free” through improved source segregation and inclusive waste management systems. Its guidelines call for the identification and registration of waste pickers, their organization into cooperatives or self-help groups, and the expansion of employment security, access to waste streams, proper training, safe working conditions, health coverage, and the right to freely sell recyclable materials. However, recent reports indicate that the growing privatization of urban waste management is overshadowing these objectives and threatening the livelihoods of informal waste workers, particularly women, by restricting their access to waste streams and formal contract.
This growing gap between political promises and realities on the ground is particularly visible around Delhi’s landfills. Many waste pickers and nearby communities fear that, if the landfills were eliminated, they would lose their primary and only source of income. Yet the city has been making such promises for years. Some progress has been achieved through biomining, which has helped reduce the volume of waste accumulated in landfills, but their complete removal has not yet been achieved despite ongoing projects aimed at reaching this goal. These positive models, such as those of Delhi and Pune, demonstrate what inclusion can look like. However, at the national level, most privatization trends are moving in the opposite direction. Taken together, the cases of Delhi and Pune reveal that inclusive waste governance depends not only on technical efficiency, but also on political will and the recognition of waste pickers as environmental protection actors rather than as replaceable labor.
Dignity, Recognition, and Resilience: Toward a More Equitable Waste Management System
Many inclusion projects are being announced across the country, but when it comes to implementing identification card systems for local waste workers, everything depends on how local governments manage the process. The success of such initiatives also relies on the commitment of local authorities to identify and register workers. Without strong local involvement, many waste pickers risk remaining excluded. Challenges such as limited awareness, isolated living conditions, constant mobility, work in informal settlements and remote neighborhoods, as well as the lack of official identification documents, make it difficult to ensure comprehensive coverage for all workers.
Recognizing the role of the informal sector in providing essential waste management services must be the first step toward its formal inclusion in Delhi’s waste management system. However, recognition alone is insufficient; municipalities must also legitimize this contribution by acknowledging informal workers as legitimate service providers. Simple measures, such as issuing identification cards, can make a significant difference by providing workers with greater visibility and protection.
Establishing partnerships with informal sector organizations is central to this process, as formal agreements or memorandums of understanding can institutionalize their role within the city’s official waste management framework. Yet, despite these efforts, individual workers often continue to face harassment from authorities and residents. Official recognition and structured engagement can therefore reduce these challenges and strengthen the credibility of informal actors throughout the urban system.
Integrating informal waste workers into formal social systems is crucial. This is essential not only for their empowerment but also for the effective management of solid waste. Significant policy changes are needed. Environmental benefits from recycling must go hand in hand with fair livelihoods, respect, and social protection for the people who make these contributions possible. What is needed now is collective awareness and a nationwide effort to educate every household about the importance of composting and source segregation of waste.
Despite their essential role in keeping cities clean and reducing pressure on landfills, informal waste workers in Delhi and other Indian cities continue to live and work without even the most basic protections. Many lack access to clean water, sanitation, healthcare, and fair wages, and they now face an even greater struggle for survival amid rapid urban reforms.
Their demands are not excessive; they represent the minimum conditions required for a dignified and secure life. Waste pickers are calling for unrestricted access to waste streams, designated spaces for sorting and separating materials, and protection from harassment by police, contractors, and local authorities. They demand professional identification cards issued by municipal officials to legitimize their work, improved working conditions, secure housing, and the right to freely sell recyclable materials. Above all, they seek recognition as workers deserving of health protection, stability, and respect. These are fundamental rights that should exist within any inclusive urban system.
True inclusion also requires recognizing and addressing the gender inequalities that shape this work. Women waste pickers, who form the backbone of the sector, often experience a double form of discrimination—economic marginalization and social invisibility—and must be placed at the center of any reform program. Genuine inclusion must go beyond simple recognition: it requires investment in training, protective equipment, healthcare coverage, and the formal integration of waste pickers into municipal systems. Their contribution to recycling and climate goals is indispensable, as it advances not only India’s urban sustainability objectives but also global commitments linked to the Sustainable Development Goals.
With adequate support, the resilience that has long characterized these workers can become the foundation of a fair, circular, and inclusive waste economy. Inclusion is not merely a policy option, but a moral and environmental necessity. Those who keep our cities clean also deserve a clean and dignified life.
Delhi remains clean because of the courage and perseverance of its most vulnerable communities. These are individuals who deserve not only our gratitude, but also the dignity and security that come with being truly recognized. It is their hands that hold the city together, keeping it clean even when no one is watching. After all, it is those who work in the shadows who allow Delhi to breathe.
References
Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group. (2023, June). Waste-pickers: Delhi’s forgotten environmentalists? A report for the Supreme Court of India.
https://www.chintan-india.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Chintan-Supreme-Court-Report_01.pdf
Sengupta, R. (2025, October 30). Privatisation in solid waste management is impacting informal collectors’ lives and livelihood. Down To Earth.
https://www.downtoearth.org.in/waste/privatisation-in-solid-waste-management-is-impacting-informal-collectors-lives-and-livelihood
