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Women and Waste: The Question of Shit-work

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  • Barbara Harriss-White

Abstract

One of the fastest-growing sectors of the Indian economy is waste. Its labour illustrates Deliege’s paradox of material essentiality combined with social stigma and marginalisation. Between 2015 and 2019 the production and disposal of waste in a small South Indian town was traced through its circuits of industrial production (agro-processing), distribution (of people and of food), consumption, the production of labour (human wastes) and the reproduction of society (health care activity). The material substances of waste, their physical organisation and gendered labour processes are mapped onto each circuit. This enables a discussion of three questions: (a) regulative institutions in the formal and informal waste economy; (b) the gendering of property and work in the capitalist waste economy and (c) the gendered significance of collective action. The privatisation of waste work has caused a deterioration in work conditions throughout the waste economy. Literally and metaphorically, waste work is shit-work in which women experience the worst conditions in both physical and economic terms.

Suggested Citation

  • Barbara Harriss-White, 2023. "Women and Waste: The Question of Shit-work," Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Centre for Women's Development Studies, vol. 30(3), pages 271-287, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:indgen:v:30:y:2023:i:3:p:271-287
    DOI: 10.1177/09715215231183613
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Daniel Hoornweg & Perinaz Bhada-Tata & Chris Kennedy, 2013. "Environment: Waste production must peak this century," Nature, Nature, vol. 502(7473), pages 615-617, October.
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