Breaking the bias: Women Vanguards of ‘Garbage free Kerala’
By Rakendu S
Haritha Karma Sena changing perceptions
The backbone of solid waste management in Kerala, India, is a group of women called Haritha Karma Sena (HKS), translated as ‘Green Task Force’. Formed in 2017, HKS has an active membership of nearly 30,000 women. In this way, Kerala can be considered as the first state in the country to adopt a decentralised waste management practice by opening up livelihoods in the sanitation sector state-wide. The members are a skilled workforce who carry out door-to-door waste collection, segregation of dry waste, operate and maintain treatment facilities and other community-based waste processing centres.
HKS also plays a crucial role in creating awareness among households regarding scientific waste management and waste reduction practices. The micro-enterprises of HKS are spread all over Kerala, such as the cloth and paper bag production units that provide an alternative to plastic; swap shops (where families swap reusable products), repair shops, and more.
HKS actively contributes to implementing the ‘green protocol’ in Kerala by promoting eco-friendly materials instead of single use products, soil and water conservation measures, and organic farming, while utilising different business opportunities from waste. They form an integral part of the Kerala’s mission of transformation to ‘Malinya Rahitha Keralam’, roughly translated as ‘Garbage Free Kerala’.
Women’s income-generation
By involving the members in diverse income-generating activities, HKS aims to create self-sustaining enterprises that promote more ‘women entrepreneurs’ and ‘technicians’ rather than ‘waste collectors’. Even though most of the HKS units have been registered as micro-enterprises, only 18 percent of them have started additional income-generating activities. Creating self-sustaining units and women entrepreneurs is challenged by low wages, lack of income security, and social discrimination.
The financial model of HKS is heavily dependent on the user-fee collected from households and other establishments in return for the waste management service. As found in my research, most of the HKS units are struggling to find their feet because of a lack of compliance with user fees and cooperation from the public. Despite their tremendous efforts to popularise the scientific waste management movement among the public, they remain underpaid. While my research showed that the minimum wage of a municipal worker (also known as a ‘sweeper’) employed with the local self-governments is INR 675 per day (USD $8.83), and only 12 HKS units out of over 650 samples shows an income of approximately INR 300 (USD $3.93) per-capita per-day. The highest payment under the HKS model provides only INR 400 (USD $5.23) per-day to the worker. Such a disparity implies that employing HKS members for labour-intensive tasks is financially beneficial for authorities in place of employing more municipal sweepers.
In addition to the wage gap, income from HKS activities is highly unreliable. During the Covid-19 pandemic, nearly half of all HKS units did not receive any income in September 2020.
It is important to look at the issue of the wage gap and lack of income security through a gender lens. Better paid job such as municipal sweepers are occupied by men, while the lower paid and labour-intensive tasks are carried out by HKS units who are 99 percent women. This issue falls in line with the disparity in wages in other jobs such as Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers, Anganwadi workers, and Nurses implying that social tasks which are low paid but use high mobilisation skills and time-consuming are still undertaken by women.
An HKS member (who holds a bachelor’s degree) explained the reason for her remaining in this job despite its low payment:
“… more than a job, I consider it as a service to society, waste management is very much needed and I believe that someone should be there to do this job…” (HKS member, August 2020)
Another member said:
“…I took this job because I believe that, because of people like us there will be a decline in the number of cancer patients in the state…” (HKS member, August 2020)
“…They are angels who make sacrifices for the countries’ betterment…” (HKS coordinator, December 2020)
Challenging patriarchal gender roles
In our patriarchal society, the ‘cleaning and removal of waste’ is considered as a part of women’s domestic roles. Women taking up roles as ‘community caretakers’ appears like a natural extension to this domestic role. Even though the HKS members are involved in service-based and commodity-based waste management activities, the former often gets highlighted upon this perception of women as ‘community caretakers’.
A Government Officer when asked about women being the frontline workers in HKS replied:
“…women have an ‘innate nature’ of doing better in keeping the surroundings clean compared to men…” (Government official, August 2020)
The ‘caring and protective’ nature of the work, the lack of importance given to the sector leading to high public health risk, and consequential societal compulsions can persuade women to work in the waste sector for low wages.
Working with waste also involves increased health risks and attracts social stigma. Social acceptance and dignity to a livelihood generated from ‘waste’ are difficult to attain in India. This type of labour is linked with identities of class, caste, and gender. My research showed that most of the HKS members are women from socially or economically oppressed groups. Despite being framed as ‘technicians’ and ‘entrepreneurs’, HKS members still face derogatory remarks and actions from people during their work.
One HKS member shared:
“They just shut the door or lock the gate when they see us coming. Once one of the households left their dog to bite us and one among us got seriously injured” (HKS member, December 2020)
Another member added:
“One day there was a function going on in a house and the house owner asked us to take away the wet wastes generated. We said we don’t have the provision to take it away that way. He got very angry and threw the waste over our head” (HKS member, December 2020)
It is contradictory that a high-risk job (both in terms of the health of workers and social status) is one among the least paid. Along with calling them ‘angels’ and applauding their service, it should be ensured that they get sufficient income, income security, and an enabling working environment. Otherwise, HKS as a government-led initiative may attract the disgrace of utilising the women to achieve development goals at cheaper prices. As long as their income and status remain subdued, claims over the creation of women entrepreneurs will remain as a fallacy.
About the author
Rakendu S, is an M Tech graduate from the Center for Technology Alternatives at Rural Areas (CTARA), Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. She is currently pursuing a research fellowship with the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India. Her areas of interest include livelihoods, solid waste management, and gender. She can be reached at: rakendusuresh@gmail.com
