Summary by Alison Ridington, Research Assistant, TSEDEQ
January 2006
Waste Pickers and Collectors in Delhi: Poverty and Environment in an Urban Informal Sector, Yujiro Hayami, A.K. Dikshit and S.N. Mishra.J of Development Studies, 42:1, 41-69.
Imagine being part of a family of five and earning $2.50 a day or even $1.50 a day. Imagine working in unsanitary slums collecting trash for a couple of measly dollars that may go primarily to rent or loans from supplies for your job. These are realities for the waste pickers and collectors of New Dehli. Waste pickers are the poorest of the poor, stuck in a situation of no upward mobility. While the waste collectors dabble along the poverty line, they have a window into selective mobility. These collectors differ from the pickers and are able to buy waste from restaurants and shops and later sell it for income. Their major challenge is securing capital to begin their work. The pickers remain with collecting trash from the streets, hauling it to be sold to other dealers.
Hayami, Dikshit, and Mishra analysed a sample of waste pickers and collectors.
Three rounds of surveys were constructed over a year and a half period in urban locations of Delhi. As people are private about their personal income, the sample was small. Sampling was made more difficult by heavy migration and the absence of formal addresses. The survey was given on off and on seasons for the workers, so it applies to year-around work.
These lowly workers keep the streets and city sanitary. As a vast majority of the workers are immigrants from "the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh and also from far-off states," a division of workers by ethnicity is created. Pickers can notaim to be collectors since all collectors are of the same descent, speaking a different language than most pickers and shunning them. Though their aspiration is to be a collector and receive double the income, most pickers remain in shacks and continue their dead-end trade.
With the minimal income that both trades receive, income is stressed more than education and health. With ninety percent illiteracy among the pickers and eighty among the collectors, education could be the factor of mobility and insight for the workers. None of the people from the sample had education past eighth grade. This mirrors their level of minimal trade. This also makes it easy for immigrants to enter and pick up this simple trade.
Among the Millenium Development Goals adopted by the United Nations, the key needs among these workers are education, sanitation and access to micro capital. Through these policies the workers will join a more literate society and the income of their families will increase. By sanitation of water passages and housing, infection and sickness should decrease, leading to a lower number of sick days for workers. Lastly, becoming a collector, though not suitable for everyone, is an aspiration that can increase the wealth of the family by half. Pursuit of these goals is a long term process, but in the end there is the hope of upward mobility for all waste workers.