Unionization as a strategy in community organization in the context of privatization: the case of conservancy workers in Mumbai

With rapid privatization of solid waste management (SWM) across urban centers in India since the 1990s, the role of the state agencies is considerably diluted. The contract system in this sector is here to stay. This has implications for the large numbers of conservancy workers who are employees of the urban local bodies (ULBs) as well as those who perform the same functions as the 'standard' workers, but work on contractual basis. Through amendments in certain labour and environment related laws, SWM has been getting differently organized during the last seven to eight years in India. The labour question in the rapidly privatizing SWM sector in urban areas has several dimensions including that of job security, and conflicts between permanent and contractual workers and other groups who work with waste. All these categories of workers in urban India, whether within the formal or the informal sector, belong to socially and economically marginalized sections of society. Unionization of workers and struggles for their entitlements has been an important strategy. Several years of association with a trade union of conservancy workers in the city of Mumbai has enriched teaching of Community Organization (CO) through classroom-field interface with a focus on social action. This paper attempts to trace, through the lens of the interface between an academic institution (and its curriculum in CO) and a trade union, the struggles and success in assuring secure livelihood and entitlements for thousands of workers. Achievements of the union assume great significance as it gives others the confidence to continue with their own efforts at organizing the unorganized.