ALL INDIA KABADI MAZDOOR MAHASANGH

The All India Kabadi Mazdoor Mahasangh (AIKMM) is a membership-based organization of waste collectors. At present, we have more than 17,000 collectors and small junk dealers as our members in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR). AIKMM has been organized and a leadership developed in order to work towards its mission of organizing the informal recycling sector for social justice and livelihood security.

We work to uphold the principles of social equality, justice, and a toxic-free environment 

Mission:

Our mission is to advocate for pro-people changes in policy making and to empower waste-collector communities through organization building, mass mobilization, and targeted research, so that they can live a dignified life with social justice, livelihood and basic needs security. We strongly support their rights to education with equity, health facilities, as well as for the protection of the environment and toxic-free material consumption.

Background:

India is a developing country and one of the fastest growing economies, with 6 to 9% GDP growth per year. Despite these achievements and claims that economic development is happening, the disparity between rich and poor is widening, and this can be seen across the country-- from large urban areas to small rural ones. According to Government of India data, 77% of India’s population is unable to earn even one dollar per day, while thousands are becoming billionaires by exploiting natural resources and collecting huge profits.

Waste collectors are perhaps the most marginalized group in Indian society. These workers live in slums under hazardous conditions, and poverty, starvation, ill health, lack of education, and a lack of basic amenities keeps their very survival constantly in question. Waste collectors are numerous and their work important: in India's mega-cities, they constitute around 1% of the population, and they recycle 20% of the city's waste. During the process of recycling they encounter acute problems and become victim to several diseases.

Despite their hard labor and high exposure to various risks while doing their work, the job of waste collecting is still mostly unrecognized by laws and society. Moreover, their work goes largely unrecognized as a large-scale activity that contributes positively to environmental degradation. AIKMM decided to work with the waste-collectors because they are one of the most deprived communities in our cities, but at the same time, they provide essential services that deserve recognition and compensation.

AIKMM works for:

• Negotiating for community rights to waste 

• Advocating for legal recognition of work as environmentally valuable

• Improving the working conditions for waste collectors

• Demanding place for segregation of waste near community bins

• Ensuring that waste collectors receive a fair payment for their recyclables

• Organizing waste collectors as a workforce 

• Working to counter the stigma of waste collecting work

• Bringing systemic changes to the management of the waste stream, so that it becomes toxics-free 

• Enrolling waste-collecting children into school and preventing subsequent drop-out

• Abolishing child labor 

• Helping waste-collecting children to understand the linkages with environment through outreach programmes on children’s health and toxics

• Advocacy for equitable quality education through common school system

• Working for the protection of the environment and making society more ecologically aware