Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPKP)

KKPKP is a trade union of wastepickers and itinerant scrap buyers registered in 1993, based in Pune, India.  As of mid-2009, it had 8,000 members, both women and men. KKPKP uses the twin strategies of peaceful non-violent protest and resistance and development of alternatives, to mobilise around some of the key issues facing wastepickers. This includes campaigning for waste collectors to be regarded as "workers" and waste collection as "work" by local, state and national government, organising social protection (e.g. medical insurance and co-operative credit / savings schemes), and integrating waste-pickers into the doorstep collection and management of urban solid waste. KKPKP also mobilises against the exploitation of waste-pickers – redressing grievances, organising boycotts against moneylenders, and fighting for compensation in cases of harassment. KKPKP has also established cooperative scrap stores to service the wastepickers and ensure better returns for them on the sale of scrap.
 
KKPKP is also active in social issues –  in campaigns or struggles against rape and sexual violence, child marriage, and child labour (promoting education among children of wastepickers.
 
KKPKP hosts the Secretariat for AIW, the National Alliance of Wastepickers in India.

See Organising the Unorganised, a Case Study of KKPKP.

Contact: Ms Lakshmi Narayan, General Secretary
web:    www.wastepickerscollective.org
phone: +91 9765404040
fax:      +91 20 26458166
email: kkpkp1993@gmail.com, wastematterspune@gmail.com
 
Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat
89, New Timber Market
Bhavani Peth,
Pune, Maharastra 411042
India