Women Rag Pickers Become Eco Entrepreneurs in Pune, India

"They now wear a local government identity card and has a health insurance plan."

Every morning Rebecca Kedari pulls a cart through this up market neighborhood of Pune to collect household waste.

Ten years ago Rebecca would not even been able to enter this area.

“before I had to go outside the city to look for dry waste and bring it back. The work conditions were bad and collecting the waste took me at least 6 hours.”

She now wears a local government identity card and has a health insurance plan.

She is part of the KKPKP a waste pickers' union that was set up in the 1990s.

After twenty years of activism…. Rebecca and three thousands other women are now the official rubbish collectors of Pune.

The WET waste Rebecca collects comes to this sorting centre.

Small pieces of plastic, cardboard and other dry materials are picked out by hand. What’s left over is put through a machine that chops it up finely to make high quality compost.

Sudjata Imtiaz Khan works here.   

“I started working as a rag picker when I was seven to help my mother. Back then we only had food to eat when people would give us something. Now the work has become easier because we can pick up the trash right at the door. I earn 3000 rupees plus another 3000 rupees from selling the dry waste per month.”

That’s around 100 dollars a month.

It’s enough for her to pay back the loan she took to pay for her daughters wedding and send her three other children to school.

Giving them the education she never had.

“I feel proud that my children can go to school now even though I didn’t.”

Aparna Susarla is from the cooperation behind this project SWaCH.

This local group is the first of its kind in India to recycling waste in this decentralized way.

“SWaCH is a completely owned cooperative of waste pickers. Waste pickers are on the governing body of this cooperative, which means they are the decision makers.”

She lists the prices they can get for the recycled material.

Rebecca says she couldn’t have done this alone.

“You need a lot of waste pickers to do this because they know what everything is worth. I know exactly what to look for. I’m not ashamed of my work, I feel proud about what I do. There are people who respect me for my work and what other people think I don’t care”

Now Rebecca has become friends with some of the wealthy homeowners.

“Yes I had breakfast there..I was sitting there on the sofa!  Relation is very good”

Aparna Susarla says it’s been good for the home owners too.

“I think the perspective of citizens has changed. They see the waste picker directly coming to my house. I interact with them daily. He or she collects the waste from me. There is a sense of accountability between me and the waste picker. So I know whatever waste I have generated she has to pick it up so I better manage it properly”

Other areas in India are looking at what’s happening in Pune.

The key to success here has been good cooperation between local government and a strong labour union.

• India
• rag pickers
• women
• SWaCH
• Devi Boerema