By Simran K, Gender Lead; Shruti Venkatesan, Associate Director, Saamuhika Shakti

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‘Gender Equity’ has always been the bedrock of Saamuhika Shakti. The initiative, since its inception in 2019, has believed in enabling equitable access to resources and outcomes for Bengaluru’s informal waste pickers and their family members, with conscious efforts towards addressing gender based marginalisation through practices and institutions. This foundational principle was adopted based on FSG’s ethnographic study conducted in 2019 that brought to light the vulnerabilities experienced by women and girls in the waste picking community. 

Thus, staying true to its key tenets, Phase 1 of the Saamuhika Shakti initiative involved a series of conscious measures that were taken to understand gender inequities at a household, community, and workspace level, evaluate partners’ organisational ethos and interventions on the gender spectrum, and co-create gender strategy at a program level. One such effort included the ‘Gender Analysis’ study that was conducted in collaboration with Dialectics Services, a for-profit organisation offering research and consulting services. The upcoming sections bring to light the key findings from the ‘Gender Analysis’ report and the way forward for deepening gender equity as part of phase 2 of Saamuhika Shakti. 

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Gender Analysis Study: Objectives, methodology and limitations

The ‘Gender Analysis’ study conducted in collaboration with Dialectics Services, focused on capturing the diverse experiences, challenges, and opportunities faced by men and women within the waste picking community. 

Leveraging a mixed-method approach, the dipstick study was conducted across 14 unique Saamuhika Shakti localities, catered to a sample group of 124 women and 44 men, who represented 6 different occupational archetypes – DWCC workers, sorters, informal waste pickers, hair pickers, itinerant buyers and entrepreneurs (informal waste pickers who are now exclusively or in addition to waste picking, driving alternative entrepreneurial ventures such as petty shop owners).

The study involved interviews with partner organisations to understand their on-ground interventions, 100 household surveys to collect data on socio-economic aspects, household dynamics and structures, 50 life story interviews with select individuals to create a comprehensive picture of how people perceive their lives, 2 focus group discussions to delve into complex aspects of gender identity and intersectionality, and 1 analysis workshop with on-ground stakeholders, Saamuhika Shakti partners, and field researchers to identify key themes. By involving the primary stakeholders as part of the analysis workshop, the study aimed to identify ground-up recommendations that strengthen gender priorities for phase 2.

Being a dipstick study having uneven stakeholder representation (based on gender and occupation type), the study was successful in giving the program a directional sense of grassroots realities and recommendations. But there is a need to further contextualise these recommendations through ongoing intervention planning and quality grassroots work. 

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Key findings 

Key findings of the study could be largely grouped under the categories of economic, social, and civic spheres for ease of understanding. But it is critical to note the intersectional nature of these factors.

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Economic sphere

• Participation in the workforce: 100% of the women that were interviewed were contributing to their family income by engaging in waste picking activities. They are seen as key bread earners in the family as well as the community. But through further discussions, what was evident was that women’s participation in the workforce was determined by the family’s financial condition. Women did indicate that they may not be allowed to work if the household did not need the additional income, or if other members of the household do not see it fit that they work. 

• Gendered roles: Study indicated clear division of roles performed by men and women at the household and workplace levels. Interviews across all locations and occupation groups indicated that household chores and caregiving are seen as women’s responsibility. Women waste pickers had the added and sole responsibility of striking a balance. This deeply impacts their choice of work as they seek roles that give them greater flexibility to manage household work, often at the cost of lower wages. 

At the workplace, women are largely involved in waste collection and sorting. Majority women who were interviewed indicated that they prefer sorting as they can engage in it together with other women, it does not require them to be out on the streets, walking and carrying heavy loads, and most importantly, offers them flexibility in terms of timings. But the downside of engaging with sorting as their primary role within the waste value chain is that it is a daily wage work offering them Rs. 300-400 per day as opposed to men who largely take up contractual roles such as drivers, construction workers, managing/working in scrap shops, machine operators at Dry Waste Collection Centres (DWCCs), etc., that are considered high skill roles and hence, fetch a higher pay. 

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• Mobility: 15% men as compared to 5% women owned cycles, which enhanced their mobility, enabling male waste pickers to access more localities for waste picking. Therefore, while the rate paid for the waste collected was the same for men and women, men were able to collect more due to greater mobility. On the other hand, while access to public transport due to progressive policies announced in 2022 such as free travel in non-luxury government buses to women domiciled in Karnataka, is an advantage, the stigma and discrimination against waste pickers using these services diminished the benefits. Additionally, migrant women were unable to access this scheme as they did not have locally valid State identity cards.

• Financial decision making: While both men and women partake in economic activities, women made decisions in the spheres of children, food, groceries, and men made decisions related to overall finances and property. What was interesting to note is that despite such a clear distinction in financial decision making, money lenders preferred to give loans to women (69% women had taken loans) as they found them more reliable and committed when it came to loan repayment. 

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Social sphere

• Consumption of alcohol and drugs: Household surveys indicated high consumption of alcohol and drugs in the families/communities creating an unhealthy social environment for community members, often increasing vulnerabilities for women and girls.

• Domestic violence: 80% of male and female respondents acknowledged instances of domestic violence against women in their communities. This indicates an imbalance in power structures at a household/community level and potentially a strong linkage with the previously discussed aspect of alcohol and drug consumption. Here, it is important to note that violence takes many forms (physical, emotional, financial), but it is largely spoken about only when it is physical. The fear of violence and the power imbalance within abusive relationships restrict women's autonomy, silences their voices, and perpetuates a cycle of gender-based violence that hinders their ability to engage in social activities and demand respect. 

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• Marriage/Remarriage: Girls' marriage is seen as an important milestone and is perceived as a way to avoid chances of elopement, sexual abuse, and societal pressure. Thus, women perceive marriage to be the primary pathway for protection from external violence but unfortunately, the previous point regarding domestic violence showcases contradictory realities. Additionally, the survey results indicated that it is more socially acceptable for men in the waste picking community to remarry as compared to women.

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Civic

• Entitlements: >85% of the respondents had access to PAN and Aadhaar cards (government ID cards) and 73% respondents had access to ration cards (member/ID card for the subsidised food grain public distribution system). This enables the majority of the populous, both men and women, to get access to government schemes and entitlements. Challenges in accessing entitlements were experienced by both men and women as a result of difficulties in obtaining local address documentation. This challenge is more visible in the context of migrant families.
  
  
• Education and healthcare: Access to quality education and healthcare within the waste picking community is a challenge for both genders. Drop out rate is higher in boys as compared to girls as they are expected to start contributing to income generating activities at a young age. A large percentage of women and girls use scrap cloth as a makeshift alternative, indicating difficulties in affording sanitary napkins. Additionally lack of water access, limits their ability to reuse cloth leading to unhygienic disposal.
  
  
• Civic amenities [gas, electricity, and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH)]: Across all locations surveyed housing arrangements largely consisted of rented houses, informal settlements or resettlement colonies lacking quality civic amenities. A large part of women’s time is spent managing the household arrangements due to poor infrastructure and support. For instance, the absence of electricity during certain hours necessitates women to return home early to cook before sundown. Thus, negatively influencing their working hours. 

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While challenges on the civic front are largely experienced by both genders, women tend to shoulder greater responsibilities as they are perceived to be the primary caregivers. 

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Way forward

The study's findings highlight several fundamental realities with respect to gender norms, the burden of household responsibilities conflicting with individual aspirations, and the desire to find ways to live with dignity. All of the above indicates the need to strengthen program interventions by consistently prioritising gender as a fundamental principle. Prioritised pathways for enabling gender equity will include the following:

1. Ensuring strategic alignment from a gender lens: Phase 2 of Saamuhika Shakti aims to take a more conscious and evidence based approach to gender. To achieve these aims, targeted efforts are being made to ensure integration of a gender lens into the program as well as partners’ theory of changes and program’s monitoring, evaluation, and learning framework.
   
   
2. Enabling gender awareness and support for program partners: Enabling greater gender awareness for program partners and institutionalisation of gender sensitive policies at an organisation level is a priority for the program. Hence, to achieve this, Saamuhika Shakti will gather industry experts to facilitate key discussions for its partners on themes such as gender audits, DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), POSH (Prevention of Sexual Harassment), etc.
   
   
3. Ensuring gender sensitive program design and grassroots practices: Lastly, but most importantly, program partners will actively and consistently drive the following activities to create gender equitable impact at the last mile.

• Enabling greater enrollment and representation of women across all programs 
• Designing program interventions and policies for women based on factors such as mobility, timings, childcare responsibilities, leave requirements, etc. 
• Inclusion of gender based modules in awareness/skill training sessions; actively creating opportunities and space to engage men and boys in these discussions to enable behavioural and perception shifts 
• Targeted multi-faceted support and interventions for complex issues such as domestic violence, child safety, etc.
• Identifying and celebrating female and male champions in the community who act as allies and champions for gender equity
• Capture and disseminate stories that bring to light grassroots realities as well as celebrate change from a gender lens

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While these are a few pathways that the program aims to delve deeper into, we also aim to capture feedback from primary stakeholders and field workers on an ongoing basis to ensure that our interventions are iterative and in the best interest of the target audience that we as Saamuhika Shakti are serving.

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