Saamuhika Shakti Quarterly September 2023

Hello!

Circularity. Just transition. These are concepts and words being discussed in the waste management world today. But how do Karnataka’s waste pickers — among the people for whom and about whom these discussions are happening — understand these words?

How are influencers helping shape opinions about the role of waste pickers in our society? What needs to be done to plug the gap in the availability of well-designed protective gear for waste pickers? How can we help reduce the burden of textile waste on our landfills while ensuring waste pickers benefit from the value chain?

These are the features we have for you in this edition of the Saamuhika Shakti Quarterly. ?

And, last but not least, the stories behind our photos, from Saamuhika Shakti’s own documentary photographer, Vinod Sebastian.

Happy reading,

Akshay Soni

The Waste Pickers’ Dictionary

How do the people who collect, sort and find value in our waste define the terms used to talk about waste? With partner Hasiru Dala ’s help, we sat down with waste pickers from across Karnataka to document their understanding of some important terms related to waste management. In their own words:

Influencing for good: It works!

“What actual influencing looks like!”

That’s one of over 4,500 comments received on a viral video created by BBC Media Action in collaboration with the well-known digital influencer Shraddha Jain (aiyyoShraddha) . The video recorded 3 million views within 48 hours, and since then, it has amassed over 10 million views and shared a staggering 164,000 times on Instagram alone. In this blog, BBC Media Action writes about how it worked with influencers to initiate conversations on topics that often go unaddressed. Read here:

Conversations from the field: Making PPE work for waste pickers

"It's not that waste pickers do not want to use protective equipment; it's not that we need to change their behaviour. It's actually changing the design of the product we give them."

Bengaluru's waste pickers work tirelessly to collect and segregate our waste. But they still don't have proper personal protective equipment (PPE) that works for them and keeps them safe. Hasiru Dala is helping them come up with their own custom gear. In this video, Hasiru Dala co-founder Nalini Shekar talks about why the PPE project began, the gaps in the existing gear for waste pickers and how the organisation is working with waste pickers to design a product that suits the work on the ground.

Your old clothes are not trash

The textile and apparel industry has come under increasing scrutiny for its adverse environmental impact. Circular Apparel Innovation Factory (CAIF) 's Closing the Loop on Textile Waste initiative is dedicated to enabling the textile and apparel industry to adopt a sustainable and circular model to manage textile waste, addressing not only the industry's environmental challenges but also the longstanding social inequities within it. Read here:

The stories behind our photos

Since 2020, when Saamuhika Shakti began working with waste pickers in Bengaluru, photographer?Vinod Sebastian?has been documenting our partners’ work and the waste pickers’ lives. Every photograph, a unique story — of faces, families, jobs, homes, lanes, lives, resilience.

Here is a collection.

Nalini Shekar | Rohini Malur | Karthik Natarajan | Nishant Kumar | Tej Prakash Yadav | Ankur Garg | Sarika Nair | Sakshi Chawla | Somatish Banerji | Venkat Kotamaraju | H&M Foundation | Maria Bystedt | Linda Hilmg?rd | Akshay Soni | Zibi Jamal | Bharath Sequeira | Sanjay Kumar Paswan | Simran K | Prathmesh Mahajani | Vishwadha Chander