The pandemic has been particularly devastating to the people who make their living by selling, sorting and recovering recyclable materials and running the informal recycling sector in India.
They have to be on the streets and dhalaos every day to collect the waste and do not have the luxury of staying at home like many workers in these scary and difficult times.
With Plastic Solutions Fund support, Chintan, a non-profit that enables proactive participation of the informal recycling sector in waste management in Delhi, India, will provide the community of waste workers with dry ration kits. Each dry ration kit contains staples for a family of six and will suffice for a month.
Established in 1999, Chintan’s programs for waste pickers employ over 1000 wastepickers collecting waste from over 24,000 households in the NCR. It incubates an association of wastepickers, small traders, itinerant buyers and recyclers called Safai Sena, which has membership of 12,000 wastepickers. Chintan endeavours to secure the right to a life with dignity for informal recyclers and to access environmentally and socially responsible waste recycling.
