Project Utthaan: Empowering Those Who Keep India Clean

By Inara Aslam, Plastic Waste Management Unit, UNDP India.

October 17, 2025

Three people in a green-walled room; left in blue veil, middle child, right in a patterned robe. — Jayesh Sharma/ UNDP India

Across India, millions of waste pickers — known as Safai Mitras — form the backbone of urban sanitation. Yet, they remain among the most marginalized workers in society.

Project Utthaan, a multistakeholder partnership led by UNDP India with the Government of India, the private sector, civil society, and communities, is changing this. Together, they are helping Safai Mitras access social protection, financial services, and new livelihood opportunities — ensuring that those who keep our cities clean can also build safe, secure, and dignified lives.

Life Around the Landfill

Towering above East Delhi, the Ghazipur landfill is one of Asia’s largest mountains of waste, visible from highways and metro lines alike. Trucks drive up a spiral road to dump thousands of tonnes of garbage every day, creating a skyline of smoke and debris. At its edge, Indermati begins her morning sorting through piles of dry waste. Her husband, Ravinder, collects waste from the landfill alongside his mother and brothers, earning between 10,000-15,000 INR per month (USD 120–180). Married young, she left school early and moved to Delhi soon after.

“I have worked with waste all my life,” she says. “I never imagined anything different.”

Her two children, Anant, 15, and Aradhana, 10, are her motivation to imagine that change. “I want my children to study well and live a life where they don’t have to do this work,” she says, smiling as Aradhana shyly adds that she dreams of becoming a police officer one day. Her son Anant aspires to be a doctor.

Utthaan: Turning Inclusion into Opportunity

Launched in 2020, Project Utthaan is changing the way India sees waste work — shifting focus from refuse to the people who manage it. The project connects Safai Mitras to social protection, health insurance, and banking, ensuring that progress reaches those who need it most.

So far, more than 27,000 Safai Mitras have been linked to at least two government welfare schemes, opening doors to stability and self-reliance.

This change is powered by partnership. Ministries such as the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, along with Urban Local Bodies, guide policy and implementation. Private sector partners - Hindustan Unilever, Coca-Cola India, and The Coca-Cola Foundation provide vital support and civil society partners ensure last-mile connections—making sure the promises of inclusion become reality.

Opening a Door to Financial Security

For workers like Indermati, this transformation is deeply personal. When she met Sapna, a community mobilizer with Project Utthaan, she learned for the first time what financial inclusion could mean for her family. Sapna helped her open her first-ever bank account. Soon after, she began depositing a small amount each month in a recurring deposit. “If I begin saving now, I can use that money to educate my children,” says Indermati, holding her passbook carefully wrapped in plastic.

Project Utthaan’s approach, rooted in the ‘Leaving No One Behind’ principle of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), focuses on building awareness, trust, and financial resilience. By providing information in local languages, it ensures that benefits reach those who need them most.

Protection for the Most Vulnerable

Waste picking is not only informal; it is unsafe. Workers face daily exposure to sharp metal scraps, hazardous waste, and toxic fumes. Long hours in polluted air often lead to chronic cough, skin infections, and joint pain, conditions that go untreated because medical care is unaffordable.

Through Project Utthaan, Sapna also helped Indermati enroll for accidental insurance worth ₹2 lakh and register for an e-Shram card, India’s social security card for unorganized workers. This registration provides access to healthcare, pensions, and welfare benefits.

From Utthaan to NAMASTE

Lessons from Utthaan helped inform the NAMASTE Scheme, launched by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, which extends comprehensive social protection to sanitation and waste workers across the country. The scheme now aims to reach 250,000 workers, marking a historic moment in formally recognizing this workforce.

Together, Utthaan and NAMASTE represent a new chapter in India’s development story, one where inclusion is not an afterthought but the foundation.

Beyond Poverty: Towards Dignity and Opportunity

For Indermati, this change is more than financial; it is about self-belief. The money she saves each month represents more than a growing balance. It represents control, confidence, and choice.

“I want to make sure my children have the freedom to choose their own path,” she says.

Her journey mirrors a broader truth about poverty eradication. Access to financial tools, healthcare, and opportunity is the foundation of empowerment.

When those once invisible gain visibility, when systems are built to include rather than exclude, and when women like Indermati take control of their future, the path out of poverty becomes real. True financial freedom begins not with accumulation, but with recognition of one’s rightful place within the formal economy.