S. Bhattacharjee and Susmita Gupta
Abstract
A study made on the waste pickers and waste traders of Silchar, Assam, a small city of North East India revealed that children constituted 63% of the population, women 21% and the remaining 16% were men. There were itinerant buyers also who contributed largely in waste collection. The waste collection was highest in the pre monsoon and lowest in the monsoon. The waste collected by waste pickers and itinerant buyers was around 15.7% of the total waste thus saving approximately 15.7% of the expenses of municipal authorities. It was recorded that trader to whole-seller price was approximately 50% higher than the wastepickers to traders while whole-seller to recycling unit price was more than 100% higher than the wastepickers to traders. Their earning, health condition, social status and finally contribution in MSWM have been discussed.