Wastepickers contracted to work for the municipal corporation of Ahmedabad were shocked to arrive to work in Vejalpur on August 15 and find someone else doing their jobs. Overnight, and on a national holiday, the municipality created a new waste collection contract with a private company called Jigar Transport Company based in Surat city of South Gujarat.

After gathering supportive letter from residents, conducting sit-ins at the offices of Ahmedabad officials, and launching court battles, the wastepickers of Velajpur were given their jobs back but only until September 30^th, at which point their contract runs out. Following this date, it appears that the municipality will work with the Jigar Transport Company.

The contract with Ahmedabad represented a hard-won battle for this particular wastepicker collective, consisting of 366 workers and supported by the Self-Employed Womens Association (SEWA). In a letter drafted to garner support for their plight the wastepickers of Ahmedabad had this to say:

“Our cooperative organises waste paper pickers for alternative employment.  We collect waste door-to-door from people’s homes, thereby making a living with dignity. We are now able to feed our children and send them to school. Our lives have changed. We have moved towards self-reliance.”

 The loss of this contract is a huge blow to these very vulnerable members of Indian society and represents a much larger trend towards corporate privatization in India. Unfortunately, this leaves the poor with a no opportunity for self-reliance, even while waste-pickers continue to provide recycling services in the area. Private corporations take all waste to the landfill without segregating it while wastepickers simply move their segregation and recycling operations into less and less safe environments. This undignified livelihood is even further exacerbated when the waste mafia shows up and demands bribes from waste-pickers to “allow” recycling to happen in certain areas.

For now, the wastepickers of Velajpur continue to fight for their lives.

“We the waste-pickers of the Karyasiddh cooperative request your support and solidarity in our struggle for work with dignity.” 

Bhavanaben, Muktaben, Shardaben,  Madhuben

&

other members of the Executive Committee

of

Shri Karyasiddh Kagad Kam

Mahila SEWA Sahkari Mandali Ltd.

From Decision-Makers to Wastepickers COP 15 will define many futures

December 7th, 2009 begins the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Copenhagen, Denmark. This conference represents the last opportunity for the international community to agree on binding and measurable greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets after 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol expires. If the international community does not agree to such targets, emissions will continue to flow into the atmosphere unabated, with disastrous consequences.

Climate justice poster - Monsoon Festival 4

Given the historic moment that is taking place in Copenhagen in December, a monumental opportunity for the world’s nations to come together and address our global environmental crisis, I thought it appropriate to spend time reflecting on the history of climate change negotiations leading up to this point. In addition, given my current position as an intern at Chintan it also seems appropriate to situate New Delhi’s waste-pickers within this public international legal debate.

The Road to Copenhagen

19 years ago, in June of 1990, the United Nation’s Climate Panel issued a report warning that the Earth’s future was in danger as a result of emissions from the combustion of coal, oil, and gas. In 1992, the international community met in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, or the “Earth Summit” to address this warning. The United Nations Framework Agreement on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was the result.

Approximately 200 nations signed on to the UNFCCC, the first ever agreement to address global greenhouse gas emissions. In 1994, these nations ratified the UNFCCC, making it legally binding. Since 1994, parties to this convention have met annually to further negotiate greenhouse gas emissions reductions and climate change adaptation strategies. COP 15 in Copenhagen is the fifteenth of such meetings.

Soon after the UNFCCC was ratified, parties began to realize that this framework convention did not contain any real emissions reductions targets and therefore needed bolstering to become effective in the fight against climate change. Thus, at the Convention of the Parties in 1997, located in Kyoto, Japan, the Kyoto Protocol was adopted. The Kyoto Protocol gave concrete emissions reduction targets to industrialized nations. While different Annex I countries were bound to different emissions reduction targets, all agreements led to an overall average of a 5% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below 1990 levels. These reductions are supposed to take place between 2008 and 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol expires.

For fairness purposes, the Kyoto Protocol treats industrialized or “Annex I” countries differently from developing countries. In essence, developing nations, who have had relatively little impact on total emissions throughout the years, were not given legally binding emissions reduction targets. Yet, non Annex I countries, such as India,  remain engaged with the protocol through international project financing channels, such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The CDM allows industrialized countries to finance emissions mitigation projects in developing countries and count the emissions reductions towards their own targets.

In 2005, the Kyoto Protocol was ratified by approximately 184 countries. Not all of the parties to the UNFCCC consented to be bound by the Kyoto Protocol. Most notable among these defecting parties was the United States of America, the world’s second largest greenhouse gas emitter (behind China) and second largest economy (behind the European Union).

In 2007, at COP 13 in Bali, Indonesia, Parties to the UNFCCC agreed on a climate action road map called the Bali Action Plan. This plan provided a two-year time frame in which nations could draft and negotiate a new binding agreement complete with emissions reductions targets beyond 2012. This plan culminates in Copenhagen, which has been set as the deadline for a new agreement. Since the adoption of the Bali Action Plan, numerous initial rounds of negotiation have taken place. Further hashing out of details will take place in Bangkok in September and Barcelona in November prior to the major gathering in Copenhagen in December of 2009.

Leading up to COP 15, all eyes are on US President Barack Obama to see if the US is finally willing make legally binding international commitments to addressing climate change beyond 2012. Emerging economies such as India and China are also facing international pressure to commit to binding targets even while retaining non-industrialized (or non-Annex I) country status.

India’s position leading up to Copenhagen

India's Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh

India's Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh

“Our people have a right to economic and social development and to discard the ignominy of widespread poverty. For this we need rapid economic growth. But I also believe that ecologically sustainable development need not be in contradiction to achieving our growth objectives. In fact, we must have a broader perspective on development. It must include the quality of life, not merely the quantitative accretion of goods and services. Our people want higher standards of living, but they also want clean water to drink, fresh air to breathe and a green earth to walk on.”

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.

While India is currently the world’s 4th largest economy and the 3rd largest greenhouse gas emitter it is also home to the world’s largest number of poor people. Thus, India does not want binding targets to confine its room to grow socially and economically. Yet, India maintains its commitment to a clean environment and has promised never to exceed the per capita greenhouse gas emissions of industrialized nations. Therefore, if industrialized nations drastically cut their emissions, then India will be limited by these new emissions standards and will adapt (with financial assistance from the industrialized community). However, if industrialized countries do not cut their emissions, India will continue to grow its emissions with no limits, following the trajectory that many industrialized nations are currently on. Ideally, there will be a convergence of emissions over time as India’s economy grows and industrialized nations curb their contribution to climate change.

Waste-pickers and Climate Change

Dharmraj - Old Door to Door Waste-picker

Dharmraj: Waste-picker who works with Chintan's Door to Door Waste Collection Servic

As India’s recycling service, waste-pickers have a huge role to play in emissions reductions. Indeed, waste-pickers are responsible for a substantial amount of greenhouse gas emissions mitigation work and are the backbone of recycling services in many developing countries. While it might seem intuitive that these impoverished climate entrepreneurs are ideal candidates for international support through the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol, currently official funding channels remain closed to such informal economies.

Yet, in India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change, waste-pickers are identified as highly efficient recyclers with much room to grow as recycling service providers. Waste-picker’s also have representation at the climate negotiations leading up to Copenhagen to advocate for international support for their much needed work.

Of course, only time will tell what kind of agreement will emerge from COP 15 and whether or not this agreement will allow international funding for waste-recyclers. For now, Chintan continues its grassroots climate justice advocacy and the climate continues to change.

Wastepickers aren’t the only community uniting to fight for their rights in India. Indeed, while living in New Delhi for the summer, I am discovering that this is a city rich with activists trying to make India a more equitable and just society. One such group of activists is the LGTBQ community, who recently celebrated a victory for gay rights an India.

Celebrate PRIDE!

Delhi's 2nd Annual Pride Parade

An 8-year public interest challenge to India’s anti-sodomy law was resolved on July 2, 2009 when the Delhi High Court declared the discriminatory aspects of s. 377 of the Indian Penal Code unconstitutional.

Protesting s. 377 of India's Penal Code

Protesting s. 377 of the Indian Penal Code

S. 377 of the Indian Penal Code, first drafted by the British, prohibits intercourse “against the order of nature”. Over the years the Indian judiciary has interpreted this provision as outlawing gay sex in India.  In Naz Foundation (India) Trust v. Government of NCT, Delhi and Others, Writ Petition (Civil) No. 7455 of 2001, the Delhi High Court held that this discriminatory interpretation of s. 377 violates the equality rights set out in India’s Constitution. Therefore s. 377 was read down to apply only to “non-consensual penile non-vaginal sex and penile non-vaginal sex involving minors” and no longer to consenting adults.

Remembering victims of discrimination

Remembering victims of discrimination and anti-queer violence

I along with two other Chintan interns had the great joy of attending Delhi’s second annual pride parade days before this landmark decision took place. While the Delhi High Court decision is a real victory for the LGTBQ community, many difficulties along the road to equity remain. Regardless of what the law on the books says, discrimination is still experienced in India and challenges to the Delhi High Court decision are already emerging. LGTBQ activists and allies will continue to support one another through their many enduring struggles for equal rights and citizenship in India. 

Sign at Delhi's Pride Parade

Sign at Delhi Pride

For further information on this legal victory see: http://www.lawyerscollective.org/node/1004

“Who speaks for the people on the land from Asia to Africa to the Americas?”

         - Vandana Shiva - Physicist, Environmental Activist and Ecofeminist based in New Delhi, India

I arrived in New Delhi and have spent the past 10 days adjusting to the climate, culture and communities in India’s capital. I have been overwhelmed with the kindness and generosity of an Indian family that took me in for my first few days of travel, have been moved by Indian art, eaten delicious food, developed a fascination with Bollywood and am also coping with record-breaking heat, language barriers, thick smog, congested, horn-honking traffic, astounding poverty and a whole array of digestive problems.

First Day in India: Jet Lagged Jacqui

First Day in New Delhi, June 21, 2009

Yet, even while the ground in New Delhi seems to be ever shifting, I finally feel like I have found some footing. Thus, I am now sitting down to write the story of my host organization, Chintan, and the community of wastepickers that Chintan services. I will continually update this story as it unfurls, and as I further embed myself in Chintan’s grassroots work focused on environmental justice in one of the world’s fastest growing economies and most populated cities.

While I am at Chintan I will be playing multiple roles. In a ten week period, I will be developing a composting kit for residents of New Delhi, conducting primary research on compensation for methane capture conducted by New Delhi’s wastepickers and building technical capacity among Chintan staff around information dissemination through video, photography and blogging. Finally, I will be blogging myself, to bring the stories of wastepickers and urban poverty in India to a North American audience.

Door to Door Segregation

Door to Door Segregation

This blog represents a major challenge for me. As a privileged outsider from the west I feel ill equipped to relay the story of a community so far removed from my own. Indeed, a community enduring environmental injustice brought on by my own.

However, I care deeply about holding myself accountable to the wastepickers of New Delhi and Chintan in representing their story accurately and in a culturally appropriate manner. Thus, I welcome and indeed appreciate any critique of the representations that I portray in this blog. Please read my words, watch the videos that I post and analyze my photographs. I cannot help but bias these representations with my own cultural baggage. I want that bias to be laid bare in the comments and critiques that permeate the commentary on my posts. I also welcome an ongoing dialogue about the appropriate role, if any, of westerners in “developing” countries, particularly with respect to western representations of “the Other” through multi-media.

Having delineated my own ethical dilemmas, I will now begin the story of Chintan and wastepickers as I see it…

Chintan’s mission is to address multiple problems simultaneously: waste management, urban poverty, and climate change among others. As such, this organization works with and for India’s waste experts, the urban poor, who are responsible for the majority of waste management and recycling that happens in the country. For wastepickers, recyclables are a commodity that if segregated from waste, provides a meager livelihood. Yet, as a result of their recycling efforts, wastepickers provide a vital environmental service to a nation undergoing unprecedented urbanization and rapid industrialization. Wastepickers ensure recycling and reuse of many materials that would otherwise end up in Delhi’s bursting landfills.

Segregation of Waste

Segregation in the Gazipur Community

Thus, Chintan works with wastepickers to increase capacity for their recycling. Furthermore, in recognition of this vital service, Chintan works to improve the working conditions, health and status of wastepickers and their families in New Delhi. Chintan has a number of campaigns and programs working to accomplish these tasks. For example, Chintan advocates for wastepickers at all levels of government, and conducts campaigns demanding that residents of New Delhi segregate their waste at its source to reduce wastepicker’s exposure to hazardous materials. Chintan also helps organize wastepickers into a variety of workers collectives. Finally, Chintan provides educational support for the children of wastepickers who often do not attend or complete state-run school programs.

Learning through song

Chintan Learning Centre in Nizamuddin

Over the next two months I will fill in the details of these programs and gain insight into how Chintan’s advocacy work and programs play out on the ground. I look forward to the challenging weeks ahead. 

I have never been to Washington, DC. So, as my plane took off from the west coast and began its journey across the US a couple of hours ago, a sense of excitement took hold. I am really looking forward to touching down in DC, the location of so many important political decisions that affect even me, a Canadian. Granted, I have spent some time in the US, and even took off from the Seattle airport having just spent Memorial Day weekend at a music festival in George, Washington. Somehow, DC seems different.

The Gorge at George

The Gorge at George

I am equally excited to meet the other Peace Fellows that will be receiving training through the Advocacy Project this week. We are a group of about 40 students being sent around the world to aid with capacity building within grassroots organizations working for social change.

I am heading to New Delhi, India with another AP Fellow, Ted Mathys, where we will be working with Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group on issues of environmental injustice within the informal waste-sector. I am nervous about spending time in India and working with a grassroots NGO. In fact, I have completely shied away from international work until now.

Throughout my life as a student, I have focused my work on local issues and have always found many cultural and sustainability challenges to work through in my own back yard. For instance, in working with cattle ranchers on sustainable farming policies for the Canadian prairies, I encountered many communication and trust barriers as an urban vegetarian environmental activist. However, I have found facing these barriers incredibly rewarding and have ultimately made many wonderful friendships while working through cultural differences at a local level.

Yet, upon finishing my undergraduate degree and entering law school, international work has landed in my lap. Increasingly I am asked to work on international environmental law projects and to present my viewpoints on the impacts of this law on sustainable development around the world. Having never worked in a ‘developing’ country I feel uncomfortable adding my perspective into the international environmental law dialogue. Thus, I have signed on to intern in India, and look forward to learning form the people at Chintan and the other AP fellows about how treaty law plays out in practice in New Delhi.

For now, my departure date to India is a few weeks away and as a result I still have time to reflect on where I will be going and what kind of changes this experience will bring to my life. As my plane begins its descent into Reagan International Airport I let the Fleet Foxes lull me to sleep and put both my excitement and apprehensions around what is to come in the back of my mind.