India’s capital city of Delhi has relied on top-down centralized systems throughout its contemporary development. This results in the city’s margins taking up a subservient role to its nexus. The downfall of one system - the city’s waste management - is experienced at Bhalswa, a town on the margins. Four decades of unapologetic waste dumping have resulted in the creation of a colossal dumpsite. The methane-emitting water-leaching dumpsite has turned the area’s historic wetland ecosystem degenerate. What is lesser known, is that the area is also home to over 200,000 people comprising the city’s urban poor as climate refugees, migrants, and frontline workers. 

The worst affected are those directly, though informally involved with the landfill - waste-pickers. These communities, living in close proximity owing to a working relationship with incoming waste, bear incredible hardships in their daily life. Regular cases of fire during Delhi’s hot summer and landslides in the monsoon often lead to weeks of continuous toxic exposure along with loss of shelter and livelihoods. In addition to climate vulnerability are social and caste-based stigmas that the community witnesses throughout. 

As the civic authority undertakes biomining in an effort to bring down the landfill, the plight of the area’s waste-working community is uncertain and at risk. A rehabilitation effort to transition to green jobs necessitates capacity building and skill development.

The Safai Sena Centre aspires to bring in dignified representation and grounding the waste workers' communities. In the immediate context, the center shall function as a base of operations to promote dignified and decent work. It shall also be a forum to conduct capacity-building and skilling workshops for the waste-picker community, and for city folk. Leveraging the act of building as an opportunity, the center’s design and development shall involve participatory processes and green skilling through the installation of solar panels, the development of rainwater harvesting pits, composting, etc. 

In instances of unprecedented landfill fires and landslides, the space shall work to safeguard the community. The building’s small footprint in a large open space brings great regard for flexibility in temporarily accommodating a displaced population and providing relief facilities such as food, water, and medical care. It can also serve as a community shelter for waste-pickers during extreme weather conditions such as heat waves.

In the longer run, the center shall be a space to consolidate our goals to facilitate green jobs and evolve from waste workers to urban waste managers. As an organization of, by, and for waste working communities, the center shall also be grounds to protect the communities’ rights, prevent ostracisation, and enable a better future. The initiative is also a scalable and replicable model for citywide implementation and scaling enabling the creation waste-based network for better future adaptation and resilience. 

Safai Sena is a registered group of waste pickers, doorstep waste collectors, itinerant and other small buyers, small junk dealers, and other types of recyclers. Its vision is for adult waste handlers to upgrade their work to green jobs. This implies that apart from benefiting the environment, waste work should be safe, respected, recognized, and clean. Our dream is also for our children to go to school instead of becoming waste-pickers.

Safai Sena is represented by three of its board members.

1. Shyra Bano, President
2. Jayprakash Chowdhary, General Secretary
3. Santosh Kumar Gupta, Treasurer

Representing Safai Sena are Balmukund Kumar and Alpha Arpana Toppo.

Balmukund is the coordinator of Safai Sena. He has five years of experience working with the waste-picker community in Delhi, Uttarakhand, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh. 

Alpha looks at the Informal sector and Environment at Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group. She oversees Safai Sena’s activities relevant to social and financial security. She conducts evidence-based research and policy advocacy for waste-pickers in the circular economy.

Better Bhalswa
Better Bhalswa is an urban regeneration initiative at Delhi’s worst. Since 2020, the initiative has set up collaborations to develop an ecosystem of solutions to better Bhalswa. Better Bhalswa is led by Gunraagh Singh Talwar, who brings in his technical skills as an architect together with his engagement skills as a social innovator. 

Jayprakash Chowdhary's vision for a Safai Centre
Why should our waste lay waste to another place?
Safai Sena's website
Better Bhalswa's website
Sabka Bhalswa brings stories from Bhalswa to you