Women’s Day Special: “Life of a Waste Collector and the formation of SWaCH”

Jyoti Londhe is been working for SWaCH Waste Management for about 15 years, as a waste collector. SWaCH is India’s first completely owned cooperative of self-employed waste collectors. It is an autonomous enterprise that provides front-end waste management services to the citizens of Pune.

In 1993, several waste collectors and waste buyers in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad came together to form Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPKP), it is a membership-based trade union. KKPKP aimed to establish and assert waste collectors contribution to the environment, the status of workers and their crucial role in the Solid Waste Management of Pune city. At present, the union has around 9000 members, 80% of whom are women from socially backward and marginalized sections of the society. Members are been given I-cards that are endorsed by the PMC, and can avail benefits like educational support for their children, life insurance and interest-free loans.

In 2000, the new MSW laws and rules were passed, which required segregation of waste, door to door waste collection, and waste processing instead of dumping. There was also a movement towards reducing containers on the street and making the city ‘container-free’, for better sanitary conditions and cleanliness. KKPKP took this opportunity to improve the working conditions of waste collectors. In 2005, KKPKP launched a pilot programme in collaboration with PMC, where waste collectors were integrated in door-to-door waste collection.

The pilot scheme was implemented in collaboration with the Department of Adult Education, SNDT Women’s University, it was operational between 2006-2008 and enabled 1500 waste collectors to become service providers for the door-to-door collection of waste from 1,25,000 households in Pune city. This considerably improved their working conditions and improved their livelihoods, effectively bridging the gap between households and the municipal waste collection service.

Jyoti said that the door to door collection is sent to V-Collect events where recycling of old electronic items, furniture, kitchen utensils, bicycles, etc is been done. Jyoti mentioned that SWaCH is partnering with Pune Municipal Corporation and ITC to collect and recycle Multi layered packaging (plastic) waste. She further added that SWaCH enables organisations to meet regulatory requirements for the safe disposal of e-waste.

When asked about her salary and financial conditions, Jyoti answered that she earns around 10 to 12 thousand rupees which includes both salary and door to door collection fee. She added that “this is not enough for a better lifestyle because there is too much inflation after the covid-19 pandemic, food items, mobile recharges, school bus fee, LPG cylinders, petrol, edible oil, clothes, etc everything is expensive we don’t have enough purchasing power”. Jyoti’s children are studying in a government school in online mode, she said that “we cannot afford extra tuitions or coaching classes for the children due to financial problems, they have discontinued attending tuition classes”.

At the end of the interview when asked about her personal safety and hygiene during her work Jyoti said that SWaCH is providing safety gloves, respiratory and dust masks, safety coveralls, safety hats/helmets, ear protection, safety eye protection and hand sanitizers.

By – Anil Malla