Context: India is home to more than 4 million waste pickers, who are the backbone of traditional waste management in most Indian cities.

• Yet, they are one of the most marginalised groups of Indian society and are at the very bottom of the socio-economic chain. The fact that they have feeble access to the government social safety net makes them highly vulnerable to emergencies and disasters. 
• As India progresses towards meeting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the plight of Safai Saathis makes a compelling case to intensify efforts to address the challenges faced by them.

Key challenges that waste pickers face

• Their multiple vulnerabilities include low and uncertain incomes, limited access to government schemes, high health risks, and severe social exclusion. These get compounded in the presence of emergencies like the COVID-19 Pandemic.  
• Apart from this, nearly 70% come from socially backward groups and over 60% have no formal education. 
• Majority of them have no health insurance, indicating very high degrees of health-shock vulnerabilities. 

Roadblocks to their Upliftment

Unavailability of Data: In 2018, the UNDP India started working with Safai Saathis through its Plastic Waste Management programme. However, the paucity of data on this community led to obstructions in devising programmes and policies to support Safai Saathis.

• However, this led UNDP India to design and publish India’s first large-scale analysis of the socio-economic conditions of Safai Saathis, based on a survey of over 9,000 workers across 14 Indian cities.

Lack of Formal Education: The survey of the socio-economic conditions of Safai Saathis showed that they are employed mainly on the margins of the urban informal sector.

• Their low incomes and job insecurity is compounded by the fact that nearly 70% come from socially backward groups and over 60% have no formal education.

Obstructions in Formalisation: More than 90% of the workers reported owning an Aadhaar card - in line with broad national trends, but only a tiny subset owned an income, caste, or occupation certificate.

• This thwarts any attempts at formalising their work and limits their access to government social security schemes.

No Health Insurance: As per the UNDP survey, less than 5% of those surveyed had any health insurance, indicating very high degrees of health-shock vulnerabilities.
Not Connected to Government Welfare Schemes: Out of the total Safai Saathis, surveyed, who had a bank account, only 20% were linked to the Jan Dhan Yojana — the government’s flagship financial inclusion programme.

• Only half of the surveyed people reported owning and using a ration card and this proportion was even smaller in cities where migrants formed a larger share among surveyed workers.

Key Steps can be taken
Short term measures

• Urban local bodies should register these workers and provide them with ID cards that recognise them as municipal workers with a clear role. They should be paid a minimum wage and should be given an authorised access to waste. 
• If Waste pickers’ cooperatives are given more strength , they can collectively bargain for higher prices for what they collect. 

Long term measures: There is a need for a comprehensive welfare framework to design social protection schemes explicitly for Waste pickers. 

• There is a need to proactively reach out to the workers for enrolment in government schemes and for a greater awareness among them about their entitlements. 
• There is a need to create better, safer, decent jobs in the economy that informal workers like can eventually move to, supported by efforts to enhance their skills. 

Finally, alternatives like technology-led circular economy models that eliminate the need for any person to do this hazardous work manually need to be explored.