Inheritance of a Bori and Landfills

It is tough to break a system that is so deeply embedded, unacknowledged and so easily missed. I am talking about informal waste management sector, and more importantly child labor that sustains in it. The informal waste management sector is almost see-through, the toiling waste pickers around us are easily overlooked. But further than that, child labor, the underbelly of this sector, remains completely hidden, unnoticed and rarely ever addressed. For years, well-intentioned policies have been worked out to protect children and prevent child labor. But what goes on paper isn’t necessarily practiced in real. How often do we notice children working in obviously wrong places, and how often do we act on it? I am not trying to guilt anyone but, the point to highlight is that these things are easy to miss, a little hard to ignore once noticed, and even harder to change.
According to the latest report by UNICEF and International Labor Organisation, 138 million minors are actively engaged in child labor. A report by WHO- Children and Digital Dumpsite, more than 18 million children and teens are engaged in the informal industry- which includes the informal waste processing sector as well. The waste management industry in itself is large with various material recycling streams- each with its own hazards and health risks, welcoming thousands of children, offering them hopes of survival. While there is very little data to show the exact scale of child laborers involved in informal waste sector, nothing can hit harder than seeing kids playing around with empty PET bottles only to realize that they are collecting them to exchange them for a better life.

Legacy of Labor: Stories of India
When I think about child labor, I wonder how exactly the idea of working for money takes roots in such young minds. At an age when most children dream of becoming doctors or astronauts, how is it that some are already thrust into work? Poverty, of course, leaves little room for dreams - survival becomes the only goal, pushing both adults and children, to grapple at whatever opportunity comes their way.
But poverty alone doesn't explain the persistence of child labor in informal sectors. Often, it is reinforced by generational occupation, children simply step into the roles their parents have always held, like waste picking.
In their paper The Inheritance of Precarious Labor: Three Generations in Waste Picking in an Indian City, V. Kalyan Shankar and Rohini Sahni trace the life of Pagabai, who was introduced to waste picking at a young age in Pune. Brought into the trade by her extended family, Pagabai relied on scrap collection to survive and feed her children. She later engaged her children into the same. Waste picking became her livelihood and later her children’s inheritance. Like Pagabai, millions of other waste pickers’ children are handed a bori (a sack) instead of school bags. Forced by poverty and limited opportunities, these children have no other option but to follow their parents and continue the legacy of waste picking. 

E-Waste and Exploited Youth:
This cycle of inherited labor and lack of opportunity extends beyond traditional waste picking to more hazardous forms of informal work- most notably, e-waste recycling.  E-waste, a rapidly growing environmental and social challenge in India is majorly handled by the informal sector. The country generates an estimate of 1.751 million MT of e-waste each year, from which informal sector recycles 95% of it . The number also includes the hidden figures of child laborers involved in this sector.
Take Seelampur in Delhi, one of the largest e-waste recycling hubs in India, where the sight of children taking apart devices is not uncommon. Most child labor in these hubs involves dismantling devices and segregating precious metals like copper, cobalt, gold and, iron-­­ typically the low-cost labor. They have to burn the plastic and casings in order to extract the metal bits and wires, inhaling toxic fumes in the process.
It has been reported that children as young as 8-9 are involved in dismantling and removing lithium batteries from the devices, while teens, melt and extract the metals from devices. They spend anywhere between 4-12 hours a day working to make just enough to survive.
Just like Seelampur, much of the other informal e-waste recycling in India and around the world mostly engages children for the dismantling and segregation part of it, simply because it is cheaper and because “they have small hands, which are useful for extracting the materials.”
 

Global Parallels:
This grim reality isn't confined to e-waste alone. Across the informal recycling sector, children continue to be exploited in equally hazardous and unregulated conditions. One such overlooked domain is textile recycling- a sector catalyzed by fast fashion.
Bangladesh, along with its growing textile export is seeing a growth in the textile waste processing as well and with it an increasing number of child laborers. These children start as young as 13- working as sorters, shop assistants, cleaners, machine operators, and porters. Most of these children are guided into these jobs by their own parents and caregivers, while some are forced by circumstances.
Kayayei- she who carries the burden, is a term used in Ghana for female porters. In Kantamanto 15 million garments arrive baled up, weighing 120-200lbs, every week. Kayayeis, as young as 6 years old, carry these bales on their heads to transport them for merely a dollar per trip, straining their neck and back in doing so.

Toxic Toll
A lost childhood isn’t the only cost these children pay for survival, long term health effect is an unknown cost that their bodies bear. In these unregulated fields, children aren’t handed masks, gloves or any protective gear to do what they do. Neither do they have the means to afford such things themselves nor are they aware of the harm caused by the work they do. Their daily work with waste exposes them to a host of health risks. According to a study by PMC, Occupational Health Sufferings of Child Waste Workers in South Asia, compared to adults, children are more susceptible to diseases from working in waste fields as their bodies are fragile and still developing. When struck with illness, they rely on home remedies and self-medication instead of a doctor’s visit because there is no one to guide them better. This absence of protective gear, medical care, and basic awareness only deepens the harm.
In e-waste dismantling sites, prolonged exposure to hazardous substances like flame retardants, dioxins, and heavy metals such as mercury and lead severely affects their neurological development and risks them to respiratory diseases. Accidental cuts and wounds are pretty common in these fields and without timely treatment these injuries lead to other infections and sepsis.
Waste picking - quite literally means picking waste off the ground, so the constant bending to pick waste, and bearing weight heavier than their own, especially in their still developing bodies, causes great damage to their musculoskeletal growth.
These are the norms of a broken system, one that robs children not just of their childhood, but of their right to a healthy future.

Daring to dream
Waste-picking isn’t something every child aspires to do. Just because they were forced into the landfills by circumstances, doesn’t mean they don’t have dreams beyond the mountains of waste. This video by Siddhesh Lokare, gave us a peek into the mind of one of the child waste picker. Babu, who spent his entire life till now on Deonar dumping grounds, talks about what lead him into this trade and the dreams he has. 

This isn’t just about waste picking or child labor, it’s about the cycle of intergenerational poverty, lack of opportunities, systemic failure and normalized suffering. Most of us wouldn’t even touch the lid of the dustbins without flinching. But for many that is a box of opportunities. Our growing consumption, and unchecked disposal habits fuel their livelihoods. The growing waste streams- an eyesore for us- is a silver lining for them.
In Pagabai’s case, waste became a means of transformation. It provided her with a livelihood, lifted her economic condition. Her children chose different paths later on, breaking the generational cycle of waste picking, and her grandchildren got the opportunity to study and complete their education, an opportunity that was out of reach for the generations before them. While waste picking changed her life for the better, most end up living their lives on the landfills, with little chance to look beyond the towering mountains of waste to the possibilities that lie ahead.

At Lucro, we recognize the systemic challenges faced by waste pickers. While we work toward a circular economy, we are committed to breaking the loop of intergenerational labor. Our work is rooted in dignity, inclusion, and long-term impact, ensuring that those who contribute to the circular economy are not left behind, but are empowered to move forward with hope and possibility. By practicing fair labor standards and ensuring that children remain in schools - not landfills - we strive to be part of the solution.