The recent wave of COVID-19 in India has been devastating. While the nation struggles to cope with the crisis, informal waste collectors are being forgotten.
Being daily wage earners, the lockdown has stripped them of all income - putting their families at risk of starvation. They need immediate support.
They provide an essential service to our economy and our planet – but are stigmatised and often have no access to government aid packages.
While developed nations have over time created centralised systems for waste management, most cities in emerging economies like India still rely on fragmented methods of waste management in what are called informal waste economies made up of informal waste collectors.
These parallel systems have become indispensable to these nations and yet hardly receive any recognition for their contributions. Indeed, waste workers collect waste around cities and coastal areas and prevent this waste from entering our oceans and from polluting our environment.
During this second wave of Covid-19, India’s waste collectors have been severely hit. They are daily wage earners and so their livelihoods and the sustenance of their families depend on whether or not they can collect and sell materials like plastic, glass and aluminium on a daily basis. With a new lockdown being imposed, waste collectors have now lost their only source of income. In addition to this, since their jobs are not recognised formally - the public aid they receive is little to none.
“Waste collectors have lost their only source of income.”
With the public system struggling to cope with the crisis and provide basic care to the larger population, it’s needless to say that waste collectors - already subject to social stigma, unhealthy living conditions and a lack of social security - are being forgotten.
With no income and barely any support - their families are going hungry and their futures are at risk. It wouldn’t take long for them to starve or suffer severe health issues.
We’re doing our best to protect these waste warriors that have been left helpless by the current situation. Last year, during the first wave of Covid we were able to help more than 6000 individuals with food and sanitary kits during the worst part of the crisis. We did this with your help.
We need your help again. We’ve set up a fundraiser to support this vital and under-served community. The money collected will go directly to waste collectors, provide them with funds to substitute their absent income - thereby helping them feed their family and get essential items.
We don’t know when this sector will be formalised and when these communities will receive consistent and formal social protection.
In the meantime, we need your help to tide them and their families through this crisis now - so we can avoid the worst.
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