SWaCH Pune Seva Sahakari Sanstha (SWaCH) is a fully member-owned waste pickers’ cooperative that counts more than 3,500 members, most of whom are women and Dalits, formerly known as “untouchables.” The first of its kind in India, SWaCH is supported by the Pune Municipal Corporation and grew out of the local trade union for waste pickers, Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPKP).
Like many of India’s fast-growing, industrializing cities, Pune faced a looming public health crisis in the 1990s. Open dumping of solid waste led to unsafe conditions, pests and excessive landfilling. In 2000, following a landmark public interest case in India’s highest court, the national government mandated household waste segregation and door-to-door collection. But few cities were prepared to implement these changes. In Pune, door-to-door services covered only 7% of households.
- Launched a pilot program to begin testing door-to-door collection to meet the national law’s mandate in 2005, sparking SWaCH’s formal establishment in 2007
- Utilizes pairs of members to collect segregated waste from 150‐400 households each, transferring recyclables and wet waste to city-run collection vehicles
- Turned the existing informal workforce into respected service providers to efficiently bridge a municipal service delivery gap while destigmatizing a marginalized population
- Signed its first agreement with the Pune Municipal Corporation in 2008, extending door-to-door solid waste collection to at least 50% of Pune
- Signed its second agreement with the Pune Municipal Corporation in 2016, expanding access to 620,000 properties who previously could not afford services
- Serves 2.3 million people
- Collects $6.8 million in user fees annually
- Facilitates recycling of 50 million kilograms of waste per day
- Improved livelihoods of informal workers, quality of life for residents and municipal service delivery for the city, including to slum households that previously had none
- Increased representation: Women constituted more than 3/4 of SWaCH’s membership
- Increased wages: The collective annual earnings of waste pickers increased from 12.6 million rupees in 2010 to 63 million rupees in 2018
- Provided waste pickers with a formal memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Pune Municipal Corporation, a license to collect e-waste, some worker benefits, workspaces, regular work hours and time off
- Convinced residents to sort trash into organic, recyclable and sanitary waste bins by educating them on how to divert waste from landfills into composting and recycling
- Provided a pro-poor alternative to centralized waste collection that has not only changed perceptions of a major marginalized population but influenced local and national policy change
- Influenced policy beyond Pune: The national government passed legislation in 2016 requiring all cities to register waste pickers, provide them with identification cards, integrate them into formal waste management systems and include them in decision making
- Inspired replication in Bengaluru
