Forty two-year-old Ashabai Doke tuned to waste picking for a livelihood when she had no other choice. Twenty years on, she is an entrepreneur who is the strength behind the Kagad Kanch Patra Kamgar Sanghatana (KKPKS), a waste pickers’ union in Aurangabad. She manages two dry waste collection shops, and has played an important role in improving the lives of 47 waste pickers. Doke was invited to share her experiences at The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) CoP21 in Paris, but couldn’t make it due to visa issues. Excerpts from an interview.

From a waste picker to an entrepreneur, share your life’s journey with us

I was born in a small village, Lahane Ozar in Buldhana district of Maharashtra. I studied up to standard III and was married at 12 into a farmers’ family. The region was drought-prone, and we migrated to Aurangabad where I initially worked as construction labour. Later, I was left with no option but to go picking waste. In 2010, my scrap dealer sold his shop, and the new owner started cutting weight saying the waste was wet. When I confronted him, he retorted that I had no option but to sell to him. I took it up as a challenge and started waste collection in a small neighbourhood and I rented a space for ₹2,000 a month. Soon a bigger dealer offered better rates for my paper, cardboard, plastic bags and bottles, and my business took off.

After a few months I fell ill and couldn’t run the shop. My family adopted several austerity measures to pay the rent and retain the place. Finally in January 2015, a woman relative loaned me ₹30,000, I reopened and also freed three women waste pickers from a scrap dealer. A lawyer too helped me out with ₹50,000. Today, 47 women sell their waste directly to me. My landlady has faith in me and refuses offers of higher rent from scrap dealers. I stepped into the waste pile some 20 years ago and I am still there, though slightly better placed.

How do you free a bonded waste picker?

In times of crisis, like illness, which is common in the unhygienic conditions we often work in, or occasions like a girl’s marriage, the illiterate women waste pickers borrow money from the scrap dealer. This means they can sell waste later only to that dealer, who will cheat on weight, cut on rates, and ensure that the debt is never repaid. When I pay the debt and free a waste picker, the scrap dealers use various arguments and tactics to retain them, but we persist and get them out.

What was your daily routine when you were a waste picker?

I used to get up at half past three, make food for the family and leave by 5am. I collected waste till 1pm, and sorting it out at the dealer’s would take another three hours. I returned home around 5pm, cooked, cleaned, washed and went to bed though not before 10pm! Every waste picker woman has the same crushing routine.

How did the KKPKS start in Aurangabad?

I took some women waste pickers to a public meeting of domestic helps in 2008. Seeing that, we too felt the need to come together. With the help of social activists, like the late Pravin Wagh and Subhash Lomteto, we gathered data on waste pickers and started KKPKS in Aurangabad. Today, out of the 8,000 waste pickers in Aurangabad, about 3,500 are the members of the KKPKS, and we work for their welfare.

What are the waste pickers fighting for?

We are fighting for full remuneration, and also want to repay debts so that we can free women from the clutches of scrap dealers. If I get financial help, I want to set free at least 50 women. Loans can be repaid in a year and more women can be released. Liquor flows at every slum corner. Children are getting addicted while husbands drink off their wives hard-earned money. It has destroyed innumerable poor families. A ban on liquor might help. Waste pickers’ children find themselves in this business from childhood, they need an education. Frequent illness is a cause of misery. Unhygienic waste hurts waste pickers; waste should be disposed in a scientific manner and the waste pickers should benefit from free, quality health services. Government needs to do a proper survey of the community.

You were invited to Paris, but couldn’t make it. What happened?

Natasha Zarine of Civic Response Team, of which I too am a part, shared my waste picker-to-entrepreneur story at an Alliance of Indian Waste pickers (AIW) conference. The AIW applied for my participation to UNFCCC CoP21 through Indian Youth Climate Network. I was invited. Though we tried our best, for reasons unknown, my visa didn’t come through. I was to talk on my struggle as well as on sustainable and equitable solid waste management solutions and a cleaner and better world for all. I was to represent the people most affected by climate change. But I couldn’t take their voice to the world.

(With inputs from Peeyush Sekhsaria)

Parikshit Suryavanshi is a researcher, translator and writer based in Aurangabad

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