WIEGO Blog

Waste Pickers and EPR in India

Sangeeta Ben walks her daily route working as a waste picker in an Ahmedabad slum

Roopa Madhav

24 May 2023

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) transfers the responsibility of waste management from municipal authorities to the producers of the waste materials. Despite the important role that informal economy workers who collect and segregate waste could play in such a system, they get no mention in India’s EPR policy.

Recent Posts

Domestic Workers Worldwide: 5 Key Facts

WIEGO Blog

22 July 2022

In this blog, we highlight statistics that make visible the size and significance of the domestic worker sector. Data from 155 countries and territories were used to examine domestic work worldwide and the findings are published in a new Statistical Brief, prepared jointly by WIEGO and the ILO.

Statistics

22-year-old Mwanahamisi Hassan, who works as a domestic worker in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Why an Enforceable Protocol on Social Protection is Essential in Africa

Pamhidzai H. Bamu, Laura Alfers

12 July 2022

The African Union recently adopted a Protocol on Social Protection, which is significant because it means that the African Union now has a single binding instrument that addresses a broad range of social-protection issues.

Social Protection, History, Debate & Policies

4 Ways Informal Workers Use Cooperatives

WIEGO Blog

2 July 2022

A delegation of workers at the recent ILC conference on Decent Work and the Social and Solidarity Economy noted the importance of optimizing lessons from the experiences of cooperatives. Some examples of ways that informal workers use cooperatives can be seen in Argentina, Brazil, India and Nigeria,

Organizing & Organizations, Care workers/care economy, Cooperatives/Unions/Organizing

Choral Mauladia poses near her cart where she sells vegetables at a local market

India’s Street Vendor Protection Act: Good on Paper But Is It Working?

Roopa Madhav

13 June 2022

India’s Street Vendor Protection Act was enacted after a long struggle and is widely lauded, yet a close look nearly a decade later shows its implementation is far from exemplary.

Law, Public Space

Malika, one of Dakar’s 19 communes d’arrondissement (administrative divisions), on 10 December 2021.

Waste Pickers Organize Into a Cooperative: Will Senegal Include Them in its Waste Management Plan?

Maguette Diop

19 May 2022

Waste pickers at the Mbeubeuss dumpsite have set up their own cooperative in an effort to be integrated into the new waste management model put forward by the government.

Inclusive Cities / Urban Policies, Organizing & Organizations, Social Protection, Women's Economic Empowerment, Collective Bargaining, Cooperatives/Unions/Organizing, Environment/Climate change, Future of Work, Gender and Waste Recycling, Poverty / Inequality