Rajabai Sawant, a waste picker in Pune, has transformed her life from collecting waste for survival to being part of an organized group of waste collectors called Swach. Established to empower waste pickers through a pro-poor public-private partnership, Swach provides them with respect and recognition as climate educators, teaching waste management practices. Co-founder Lakshmi Narayan emphasizes the importance of involving those with experience in waste handling instead of relying on contractor-run models that displace existing workers, thus ensuring livelihoods and community learning.
Even though we were earning money and running our homes by collecting and selling recyclable waste in the past, our job was not valued and we were not respected for the work we did, Sawant says as she pushes a loaded four-wheeled metal cart up a gentle slope.
Contractor models typically end up hiring males and displacing the people who traditionally did the work. We strongly felt that a person who has been doing the work for so long brings in the knowledge, experience and intelligence to handle the material in a particular way.
Collection
[
|
...
]