1 week ago
Khowai’s Women-Led Cooperative Transforms Waste Work Into Dignity
Khowai is a town in Tripura that changed how it handles rubbish.
About 100 women collect and sort waste every day.
They teach families to separate wet and dry waste at home.
More than 90% of households now do this.
The women also manage sorting centres and help recycle or compost the waste.
Streets that once had overflowing bins are now much cleaner.
The workers earn more money and help make decisions through their cooperative.
They say the waste is not just garbage because it can become useful wealth.
About 100 women now run Khowai’s door-to-door collection, segregation, processing and public-cleanup operations.
The Khowai Waste to Wealth Producer Society was created after officer Nirmal Kumar proposed a cooperative model inspired by Amul.
More than 90% of Khowai households reportedly segregate waste at the source after outreach by the women workers.
The system includes seven secondary segregation centres, six material recovery facilities and a 55-pit micro-composting centre.
Workers’ monthly pay rose from about Rs 3,000 to Rs 3,500, with payments deposited directly into their bank accounts.
- Who
- About 100 women sanitation workers, called didis, run the system, with support from Sub-Divisional Magistrate Nirmal Kumar and waste-management expert Samir Agartala.
- What
- Khowai replaced a largely contract-based sanitation arrangement with a women-led cooperative that collects, segregates, recycles and composts waste.
- Where
- Khowai, a small hill town in Tripura, India.
- When
- The women’s cooperative was registered in April and May 2026; daily collection begins at 7:00 am.
- Why
- The initiative was created to improve waste management while giving sanitation workers greater control, dignity and income.
Key facts
- Cooperative
- Khowai Waste to Wealth Producer Society
- Workforce
- About 100 women run the waste operations
- Daily waste
- Nearly 1,500 kg of dry waste and around 3,000 kg of wet waste are collected; a municipal survey estimated about 4,300 kg overall per day.
- Household compliance
- More than 90% of households segregate waste at source.
- Facilities
- Seven secondary segregation centres, six material recovery facilities and one 55-pit micro-composting centre.
- Composting capacity
- The micro-composting centre can process up to five tonnes of wet waste and produce about 500 kg of compost daily.
- Worker income
- Monthly pay increased from about Rs 3,000 to about Rs 3,500, with direct bank-account payments.
Quotes
Samir Agartala
Waste management expert managing the cooperative’s operations
“I went to Bengaluru for 90 days of practical training on Solid Liquid Resource Management at an army training centre. I learnt systems that cities far bigger than Khowai use to manage their waste, and I came back because I wanted to bring that here.”
thebetterindia.com
“I was posted in Khowai, and I saw that our sanitation workers were paid meagre amounts. They had no agency of their own and they were exploited. They were contract workers, so they were not even permanent.”
thebetterindia.com
Sources
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