How do the challenges faced by informal waste workers in Kathmandu compare to those in other developing regions?

Informal waste workers (IWWs) in Kathmandu face many challenges that are also prevalent in other developing regions, highlighting a global pattern of vulnerability and marginalization within the waste management sector. However, some challenges are particularly pronounced or take unique forms in specific geographic contexts.

Shared Challenges with Other Developing Regions:

• Lack of Formal Recognition and Social Protection:
• Kathmandu: IWWs operate in a precarious, unregulated environment, lacking formal contracts, social protections, and labor rights. They are isolated from social security schemes and legal protection frameworks, with no explicit policies in Nepal to elevate their professional standing. Their contribution is largely overlooked and underappreciated by city planners. Initiatives like the SASAJA Cooperative aim for recognition and access to social health insurance, but formalization efforts remain limited.
• Other Regions: This is a widespread issue globally, with IWWs often working outside legal and institutional frameworks, being perceived as marginalized, and lacking formal status. Many studies emphasize the lack of formal recognition and the isolation of IWWs from social-security schemes and legal protection frameworks across developing countries.
• Hazardous Working Conditions and Health Risks:
• Kathmandu: IWWs are exposed to toxic fumes, air pollution, and physical exertion, leading to chronic cough, back/knee pain, and exposure to bacteria and viruses, with dog bites being common. Injuries, especially from glass and metal cuts, are prevalent (66.2% in 12 months in one study), and handling medical waste (e.g., injections) is a significant risk. They often lack access to proper sanitary facilities like washrooms or changing areas at landfills.
• Other Regions: Similar occupational risks, including chemical hazards, musculoskeletal damage, infection, and risk of injury, are reported in Brazil, the Philippines, Argentina, and India. In Manila, over 35 diseases, including typhoid, cholera, and tuberculosis, are identified in waste picker communities. E-waste workers in India suffer hand damage, are exposed to mercury, cadmium, and lead, and inhale poisonous gases from burning waste, leading to various health issues like stunted growth in children and cancers.
• Social Stigma and Discrimination:
• Kathmandu: IWWs face significant social stigma and discrimination, being called derogatory names and considered "dirty and bad people". This leads some women to prefer working at landfills to avoid public mistreatment.
• Other Regions: This stigma is universal, with IWWs often associated with dirt, disease, squalor, and perceived as nuisances or criminals. Historically, lower-caste groups in India and non-Muslims in Muslim countries were assigned waste collection roles, embedding a low social status.
• Low, Unstable, and Unpredictable Income:
• Kathmandu: Daily income is low (average NPR 500, roughly $4.57 USD), unstructured, unpredictable, and highly market-dependent. This precariousness restricts access to protective benefits and exposes workers to economic shocks.
• Other Regions: Low and erratic wages are common, leading to financial insecurity and reliance on loans. Middlemen often exploit IWWs, paying low prices for recyclables and securing high profits, which significantly contributes to the workers' poverty.
• Limited Use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE):
• Kathmandu: Despite perceiving their work as risky, two-thirds of IWWs in Kathmandu (67.6%) do not use PPE, often resorting to their own clothing for "improvised protection".
• Other Regions: This issue is consistent with findings from studies in India and Thailand, where PPE use is reported to be poor.
• Mental Health Issues:
• Kathmandu: 27.4% of IWWs in Kathmandu show depressive symptoms, with higher rates among females and older workers. Financial insecurity, precarious working conditions, and social stigma contribute significantly to psychological health issues.
• Other Regions: Similar findings exist, such as a study in Mumbai, India, where shame, stigma, humiliation, and financial insecurity adversely affected the psychological health of waste pickers.
• Inadequate Waste Management Infrastructure and Practices:
• Kathmandu: The waste infrastructure is described as unsystematic and ineffective, with most households not segregating waste and collection in a rudimentary phase. The Sisdol landfill site reached capacity, forcing relocation. There is a lack of proper infrastructure at landfills, such as permeable membranes for leachate management, leading to contamination of clean water sources.
• Other Regions: Many developing countries face inadequate administrative and financial resources, absence of comprehensive legal frameworks, and inefficient treatment technologies. Open dumping and landfilling are prevalent, accounting for 70-90% of total municipal solid waste, and these sites often lack essential components like liners and leachate collection systems.

Challenges Particularly Prominent or Unique to Specific Regions:

• Impact of Caste System (Nepal/India): The historical influence of the caste system in Nepal assigned waste management tasks to lower-caste communities, such as the Kuchikars, which has entrenched social discrimination and marginalization for IWWs. This is a specific cultural and historical factor.
• Migration Status (Nepal): A notable proportion of IWWs in Kathmandu (approximately 48%) are migrant workers from India. Their migrant status adds further vulnerabilities regarding access to public services in the host country and complicates formalization efforts due to open borders and seasonal work patterns.
• Organ Trafficking and "Social Cleansing" (Colombia): An extreme challenge faced by waste pickers in Colombia involves "social cleansing" campaigns by paramilitary groups, leading to harassment, kidnapping, expulsion, and horrifying incidents like the discovery of 40 waste picker corpses whose organs were harvested for sale.
• Working with Explosives (Afghanistan): In Afghanistan, IWWs face the life-threatening danger of scavenging for scrap metal from unexploded weapons like landmines, grenades, and mortar shells in heavily mined areas. This directly exposes them to explosions, injuries from rust, and toxic materials like lead.
• Shipbreaking Industry (Indonesia): In Jakarta, widows scavenge for rusted iron and steel from used ships in highly polluted waters. This work exposes them to poisonous layers of rust, physical injuries, and health issues like arthritis and heart problems, due to hazardous materials within the ships.
• Large-Scale Landfill Fires (India): Landfills in India, such as Bhalswa, experience dangerous and prolonged fires, fueled by methane and chemicals. These fires cause severe air pollution, leading to respiratory illnesses, stunted growth in children, miscarriages, organ damage, and cancers among those living and working nearby.

In conclusion, while IWWs in Kathmandu share many core challenges with their counterparts globally, such as lack of recognition, hazardous conditions, and economic insecurity, certain external factors like the caste system and internal migration dynamics contribute to their specific vulnerabilities. Other regions present unique and extreme dangers, from violence and organ trafficking to working with explosives or in specific hazardous industries like shipbreaking, which are not explicitly detailed in the Kathmandu context.