UN-Backed Project Utthaan Brings 42,000 Waste Pickers Into India's Climate Story

More than 42,000 waste pickers across India are now being formally recognised as environmental stewards and climate action partners under Project Utthaan, an initiative backed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and partner foundations, since 2020.

For decades, these 'Safai Mitras' remained invisible as a result of informal, unregulated employment, caste-linked social stigma, exclusion from formal municipal waste systems, and their absence from mainstream climate narratives that centre policymakers and corporations over frontline workers. Yet their manual sorting work separating plastic, metal, cloth, and glass diverts waste from landfills, cuts methane emissions, and feeds recyclables directly into India's circular economy, reducing the need for long-distance waste transport.

Joginder Kewat (48), a Delhi waste worker who once earned just Rs 100-150 a day with no stability, now has a secure livelihood, savings, and awareness of government schemes. Rashida (40) and Shabana (32) similarly gained e-Shram cards, Ayushman health cards, and free LPG cylinders benefits they were long eligible for but couldn't access due to low awareness, missing documentation, digital and literacy barriers, and the cost of unpaid time off work, rather than ineligibility itself, said Ashish Chaturvedi, UNDP India's climate and environment head.

The project also creates new livelihoods through upcycling: at project centres, discarded milk pouches are washed, dried, cut into strips, and woven with cotton into handbags, wallets, and plant holders shifting workers from low-value raw collection to higher-value production, with Shabana now working as both waste worker and artist, and building savings toward a house.

Chaturvedi described a " multiplier effect," where one worker's success accessing schemes builds trust and inclusion across entire communities. Angela Lusigi, UNDP India's Resident Representative, said the campaign ' Planet Starts With People,' launched on World Environment Day 2026, shows climate action begins locally with people long overlooked as climate leaders.

For Chaturvedi, the deeper shift is in self-perception: workers now see themselves not just as cleaners of cities, but as citizens with rights, entitlements, and aspirations.