TRADE AND RECYCLING OF INORGANIC SOLID WASTE IN HYDERABAD 149
The gender composition of the workforce shows that women are concentrated in wage
work in recycling and wholesaler units with less security than men workers, and in the
vulnerable street picking and dump picking. They are not found among the category
of traders, where medium-level incomes are made. This skewed pattern has to do with
gendered constructions of public space, which do not allow women of certain castes
to move from household to household to buy materials. Those women who do street
picking are from scheduled castes and tribes, and are not expected to conform to the
norms of higher caste groups.
Working conditions are not good and the majority of street and dump pickers
complain of health problems, which they associate with their work. They spend a fair
amount of money on private health care, which is more expensive but also more easily
accessible than public sector health care (although it is free, the hours conflict with the
working hours of the pickers).
Regulation of the sector
The legality of the actors/enterprises in the commodity chain goes down from recy-
cling units to pickers The recycling units are most often registered enterprises with
single ownership or proprietorship. They pay taxes, and have legal connections to
electricity and land tenure. However, they usually do not conform to the labor legisla-
tion pertaining to permanent workers
Wholesalers in the sample preferred to be located in industrial estates or outside the
city, in order to avoid strict environmental regulations.
Retail traders work mainly from their home premises, which the majority rent. Both
aspects make them vulnerable to harassment from the property owner and neighbors,
because of the environmental problems associated with waste. It also means that they
are not formally regulated as businesses, and are part of the ‘informal economy’ in
Hyderabad. They are open to harassment by the police and municipal officers because
of this, and have to pay bribes regularly in order to prevent closure or confiscation of
their goods.
Itinerant buyers are not recognized as official collectors and are also part of the
‘informal economy’. They have to create their own legitimacy by building up trust
with the households from whom they obtain their materials over a longer period of
time. Pickers are considered completely illegal and mistrusted even more by residents,
municipal crews, and police. They are harassed by the various groups mentioned, and
have to bribe police and municipal officers for access to the waste (especially at the
dumpsite).
This aura of illegality that hangs over the small-scale and ‘informal’ trading activities
has prevented local and national authorities from recognizing the economic and envi-