A study of the socio-political, caste and class factors in waste picking in Bangladesh : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Social Work at Massey University, Albany, Auckland, New Zealand

Abstract

This project investigates the lived experiences of women tokai (waste pickers) of Dhaka City, Bangladesh. In particular this project seeks to understand their experiences of the South Asian Muslim caste system, cultural stigma, the male-dominated waste labour market, the division of labour, power relationships and gender influences of contemporary waste management. The aim of this project is to investigate the ways that power and waste picking rights unevenly display in urban settings by exploring the lived experiences of tokai communities. It explores the continuing influence of the male marriage privilege system (the rights of males to enter into multiple marriages) that maintains oppression and social uncertainties among tokai.

This project also considers how both occupational health risks and tokai resilience contribute to advocacy, and to the way they organize their work. It also proposes a sustainable social policy at this critical moment of change in Bangladeshi urban waste governance. Finally, the project explores social and policy constraints on the self-efficacy of the tokai, and government strategies to address their structurally disadvantaged position within the society. To explore these issues, the thesis takes the position that informal waste picking is regarded as either a garbage citizenship right (from social justice point of view), or a way structural inequality is imposed on marginalised communities. This project uses an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) with a social constructionist theory drawing on online semi-structured interviews (n=21) with tokai, and with key informants’ interviews(n=4) in Dhaka City between 2020-2021. Online interviews were conducted due to Covid-19 pandemic and travel restriction, and with help from local NGO workers and a team of volunteers who recruited participants, provided the information sheets to them and obtained voluntary consent from each participant. Prior to recruiting, this project obtained full ethics approval from Massey University, New Zealand. This project argues that current local city government and their waste management rules and regulations continually perpetuate discrimination, oppression, and inequalities among tokai.

Key findings of the project highlight the dynamics of power, garbage citizenship rights, violence by intimate partners, job insecurity and discrimination in key services such as education, housing, and access to health care services which are hidden and under-researched, and in marginalized tokai who are supposed to be invisible in the waste management system. Yet the system could not function without them.

This project makes an important contribution toward theorising marginalised informal waste picking work by highlighting tokai intersectional insights, perceptions on the benefits and challenges of informal work in a moment of change in the urban space. It creates a framework to enhance decision making and to support radical measures and strategies to create social justice. The thesis develops a framework that aids the understanding of structural inequalities with a view to guiding the development of governmental and public policies related to waste management, and occupational health safety. This project proposes developing appropriate interventions and social benefits (tokai projects-scholarship) to support these communities in urban space and contemporary waste governance. One of the important contributions of this project is identifying the invisible Muslim caste and class hierarchy and male dominated labour force in Bangladesh which have existed since the era of British colonization. Methodologically, it demonstrates how to conduct qualitative research in socio-political, institutional influences and religious conservative society, even in a pandemic environment.

Based on the findings of this project, it is clear that Bangladesh need a system that creates better networks and connections between local government and tokai communities in order to recognise the importance of informal waste picking. Theoretically the project makes meaning of the life stories of tokai which provide the foundation for garbage citizenship. It proposes that local government must evolve its behaviours, attitudes, rules, and regulations in order to initiate a suitable social waste policy that provides equal rights, equal protections, and urban services for everyone.