(Un)Sighting Value, Place and People. The E-scrap Trade of North East Delhi

Using (Un)Sighting as a conceptual framework, this article offers an empirical examination of the reshaping of recycling practices, labour and spaces in two neighbourhoods of Delhi since the implementation of 2016 E-Waste Management Rules. In recent years, urban mining has not only become an environmental and waste management concern but also an opportunity for value creation for industry actors and public authorities. (Un)Sighting focuses on both the visibility and invisibility of material and economic values of electronic components, as well as of the social values created through the trade of e-waste within a politically complex environment marked by societal discrimination and the socio-economic and political marginalisation of Muslim communities. However, instead of being passive victims, e-kabadis actively use their invisibility as a strategy to protect e-scrapwork from police oversight, while also asserting their autonomy in the face of a formalised e-waste management system that seeks to exclude them. They reposition their work as entrepreneurship, distancing scrapwork from a merely survival economy. It is rather a dynamic and complex activity that plays a role in not only generating value but also in transforming both their social and material surroundings and thus deserves to be acknowledged.