Harkesh Nagar Okhla, located in Southeast Delhi, is known for its vegetable market and industrial area. The industrial area is divided into two phases, where Harkesh Nagar is known for its fabric segregation and factories. This area is home to a small part of the nation’s staggering 7,800 kilotonnes of textile waste, which is about 8.5% of the global total annually.
With a large number of SEWA members engrossed in fabric segregation, we selected the Radhe Camp in Harkesh Nagar Okhla Phase 2 for documentation – a field area where SEWA Delhi has been working since 2019. The location highlights the grim reality of urban-poor in Delhi, where residents live in congested, informal settlements shared between multiple members.
“Garment waste segregation”, or chindi work, is the main source of income for the residents of this area. Chindi, a Marathi word meaning “rag”, refers to the segregation of textile waste discarded throughout the production process. In tall rooms, one can find towers of chindi, with mostly women engaged in sorting them. This segregation process extends beyond households to the streets, the residences of employers, and even the workers’ own homes. In many households, homes serve a dual purpose, acting as both living spaces and work areas.
What happens to Chindi?
Over the years, the Indian textile recycling ecosystem has established mechanical recycling by manual sorting, combining specific colours and fibres to sell further. By doing so, they have been able to extract economic value even from non-recycled waste. However, this infrastructure and expertise has been mostly handled by informal channels as seen in Harkesh Nagar.
As per a Wazir Advisors’ 2021 report, India’s domestic consumption market for textile and apparels is growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10% and is expected to reach US$ 190 billion by 2025-26. The Textile and Apparel (T&A) industry is one of the largest contributors to India’s economy constituting 2% of the country’s GDP.
However, this growing trend also represents the significant increase in textile waste generation. Approximately 7,793 kilotons, or 8.5% of global textile waste, is accumulated in India every year. Nearly 34% of this waste finds its way back into the textile industry through reuse and recycling but only a fraction of this makes it back into the global supply chain due to quality and visibility challenges. The remaining is downcycled (19%), incinerated (5%) or ends up in a landfill (17%).
Supply chain of textile waste in India. Photo: Fashion for Good and Sattva Consulting, 2022
SEWA Delhi in March 2024 held multiple focus group discussions (FGDs) to understand the work and challenges faced by women working as a waste segregator in Harkesh Nagar. The FGDs highlighted that only women were employed to segregate fabrics into different colours, whereas men primarily worked as contractors. The discussions revealed that for a full day of work (9 am- 6 pm), the women earn Rs 250 with an hour for taking their lunch break. Being a primary caretaker, this lunch break allows women to perform their roles as caregivers in the families which includes cooking, picking up children from the schools and other tasks.
Preliminary conversations with the contractors revealed that chindi is obtained from different locations outside Delhi, mostly Noida and Gurgaon, and is later sent to the recycling units usually situated in Haryana’s Panipat, which has flourished as one of the largest textile recycling hubs in India.
The middlemen bring the sacks back to their sorting locations, which could be their homes, rented storage rooms or the streets. A visit to the busy streets of Radhe Camp in Okhla Phase 2 reveals the division of labour, where only women can be seen sorting garment waste by colour. Meanwhile, the men are typically found on the streets, acting as supervisors, ready to scold the women if they stop working before the lunch break.
“Hum toh subah 9 baje se lag jate hai, aur 1 baje tak toilet bhi nahi jaate. Sab chij ka ek hi break milta hai pure din. (We begin work at 9 am and can’t even take a toilet break before 1 pm. We get only one break to take care of everything),” a women waste segregator said.
In some cases, however, the women segregate chindi in tall storerooms rented by contractors, where the air is filled with microplastics. These storerooms with double-height spaces reflect the earning capacity of the employer – the greater the height, the more material they can accommodate.
Supply chain of Textile Recycling showing pay disparity between women and men. Photo: SEWA Delhi
These informal settlements present a unique contrast to other informal areas in Delhi, where the homes are typically below human height. However, like other settlements, the rooms here are poorly ventilated and lit, with few or no windows or exhaust fans. This inadequate design often results in coughs, headaches, eye strain, and back pain among the women working there and, with their backs bent for up to eight hours a day, leads to various health issues.
For the middlemen buying these sacks for 15 rupees per kilogram, there is no guarantee of the material’s quality. However, their daily earnings far exceed the wages paid to workers. Though aware of the pay disparity, the women, constrained by their circumstances, cover their faces, consume the jaggery provided by their employers, and go to work each day. A contractor can purchase upto 2,500 kg of chindi from the factories, usually located at Delhi’s outskirts, at a cost of approximately Rs 10,000, including transport and labour
The segregated waste is then sold ahead on an average rate of Rs 25-30 per kg. The rates differ based on colours and types of clothes. For instance, white chindi is always costlier than the rest while silk fabrics are the most expensive.
The contractors who buy this segregated waste then sell it forward in the recycling industry.
The way forward
The cost analysis performed in the research showcases that waste segregators are incurring higher costs compared to the returns they generate. This is influenced by various factors, including high rental and transportation costs, expensive waste procurement, redundant sorting efforts at different levels and low demand for certain waste materials.
On the other hand, concerns about contaminated waste were also highlighted by the recyclers. Ensuring efficient sorting of waste at the source can allow recyclers with a feedstock that is easier to process and has a higher value.
India, being a major player in the textile industry, can not ignore the fact that 42% of textile waste comes from pre-consumer waste generated during production, such as fabric offcuts and yarn scraps which goes through the processes of sorting in separate colours through the whole supply chain process as explained above.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed at Bharat Tex 2024 between the Textiles Committee, Government e-Marketplace, and the Standing Conference of Public Enterprises to promote upcycled products made from textile waste and scrap.
This collaboration marks an important step as three government entities unite to promote upcycling. However, the MoU fails to address a critical stage in the upcycling supply chain – the sorting of textile waste. A significant number of women involved in this crucial process have been overlooked by policymakers, leaving a gap in recognising their contributions and addressing their needs in the broader initiative.
It is crucial for the committee to address the plight of the many women involved in sorting textile waste. “I don’t get paid anything when I work with the male members of my family. Yes, I work for eight hours, but that is just helping,” said a woman working as a waste segregator in Harkesh Nagar. Ensuring that these workers receive at least the minimum wage and improving their working conditions should be prioritised.
Recognising the contributions of women waste segregators is essential in policy frameworks for waste management and in promoting recycling products and industries. Policymakers should not overlook the often invisible labour of women in the recycling and textile waste sectors.
Anshu Jha and Laxmi Bohora work in SEWA Delhi and displayed the learnings from the study at the exhibition titled “ Streets, Homes, Landfills: Women in City’s Waste Management” in Bikaner House, New Delhi.
