Waste Picker Enumeration App:
The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment launched a Nationwide Waste Picker Enumeration App under the NAMASTE scheme to formalize, empower, and provide social security to waste pickers.
- Waste Picker Enumeration App is a digital platform to enumerate, identify, and support waste pickers through social security and livelihood-based interventions under the NAMASTE Scheme.
- Ministry Involved: Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJE)
- In collaboration with Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA)
- Implemented via National Safai Karamcharis Finance & Development Corporation (NSKFDC)
- Objective:
- To recognize waste pickers as essential workers in India’s solid waste management system
- To provide them with identity, protection, and integration into formal urban systems
- Targets enumeration of 2.5 lakh waste pickers and issue’s occupational identity cards for formal recognition.
- Provides health insurance under Ayushman Bharat and distributes personal protective equipment and seasonal safety kits.
- Offers skill development training and capital subsidy for waste collection vehicles to promote sustainable livelihoods.
- Supports formation of waste picker collectives to manage 750 dry waste collection centres across urban areas.
- Releases key resources like the Mainstreaming Waste Picker Collectives Guide and Charting Change socio-economic insights report.
NAMASTE Scheme:
- National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem (NAMASTE) is a Central Sector Scheme launched to formalize and rehabilitate sanitation workers engaged in hazardous cleaning and solid waste management launched In July 2023
