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@article{184350,
        author = {Sneha Zunjrute and Vishnu Shinde},
        title = {Waste Pickers and the Precariat: Rethinking Informal Labor through a Sociological Lens},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2025},
        volume = {12},
        number = {4},
        pages = {1035-1043},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=184350},
        abstract = {In the age of urbanization and globalization, people are seen to be struggling to survive in constantly changing economy while simultaneously trying to maintain their identities. This struggle forms a foundation for unorganized sector. Women play the most significant role in unorganized sector as they make up 90% of the workforce in this sector. Women in India (of all castes, classes and religions) are always marginalized due to patriarchal nature of Indian society. This paper focuses exclusively on women workers who are involved in the occupation of waste picking.
Extremely hazardous occupation like manual scavenging is a reality in organized and unorganized sector of underdeveloped and developing countries like India. Manual scavengers or waste pickers constitute lowest strata of economic and social hierarchy. Women in this occupation are further marginalised on account of gender discrimination. This occupation comes not as a choice but the only chance at survival for most waste pickers.
Waste management is one of the fundamental functions required for sustenance of urban area. Despite this, individuals involved in the process of waste collection are highly discriminated against, especially in aspects like healthcare and social security Traditional perspective on impurity of the waste related work imbedded in the system has led to an overall neglect of health and safety of these workers.
Objectives:
1.	Analyse health conditions and safety measure of waste picker women in Pune city with help of case studies.
2.	Understand how women waste pickers negotiate with “Precariat” of social system on the one hand and that of neo-liberal market forces on the other.
Methodology:
This paper uses a combination of qualitative methods for data collection. Narratives of women waste pickers who work with KKPKP (Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat) in Pune have been collected through detailed unstructured interviews.},
        keywords = {Dignity, Precarization, Deprivation.},
        month = {September},
        }