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Our Services
In search of living, millions of people move across regions every year. In the absence of right guidance and opportunities, many of them start picking waste and sell it to earn a minimum wage and to meet their basic needs.
Waste-pickers roam around the streets of the city. They walk miles picking waste on their way. As the day ends, they sell valuables to earn a living. We have developed various models to suit their needs and created a friendly and homely environment for Safai Sathis at our Material Recovery Facilities.
Through our livelihood program, we facilitate Safai Sathis in getting:
Access to
Waste Source
Flexible
Working hours
Dignified
working environment
Fixed and
Timely Salary
Access to
hygienic washrooms
Working Models for Safaai Sathis
Part-time Skilled in-house Safai Sathis
Around 30% of our waste-pickers have family responsibilities to look after and cannot work all day long. So, our safai sathi troupe that works on a part-time basis for a duration of 3-6 hours falls under this category. Aasra Welfare Association provides them with a platform wherein they get direct access to household collected dry waste. Safai sathis work in flexible shifts and preferably in groups.
They sort the valuable material out of the heap of accumulated dry waste, which they sell at a fair competitive market price. Thus ending the day with pride and earnings that justifies their hard work. Working in groups increases efficiency, team-work and monetary benefits. In groups, a large amount of dry waste is segregated at a faster pace.
Full-time Skilled in-house Safai Sathis
Due to the informal nature of waste-picking, waste-pickers’ livelihood and income is uncertain. We have developed a model where Safai Sathis can work full-time on a fixed monthly salary.
 With the help of full-time skilled in-house Safai Sathis, we divert low valued waste such as unclean LDPE (low density polyethylene), MLP (multi layered plastics), Thermocol (PS) and textile waste as well as soiled papers too, from landfilling to recycling. Our Safai Sathis carry out daily collection activity from onboarded households and commercial establishments to provide continuous flow of dry waste at the Material Recovery Facility.
City Cleaners
Waste-picking is often a chosen livelihood option for survival, as it can be easily learned and requires no formal training/education. Our City Cleaners have been picking waste for years to earn a living. They have their patch of the area where they collect their dry waste – fixed locations and fixed garbage dump sites. They collect valuables from these locations and sell them at the Material Recovery Facility at fair competitive market prices.
Safai Sathis who are homeless and reside under the bridge or on the footpath are additionally provided with nutritious meals, locked storage facilities for their personal belongings, as well as a waste pickup service based on request. Through these initiatives, Aasra has fostered positive behavior and a sense of belonging among the homeless city cleaners.
Entrepreneurial Safai Sathis
Safai sathis are smart, enterprising and have innovative ways of approaching a problem using limited resources. With years of savings, some Safai Sathis have turned independent in their way of work. They now own a dry waste collection medium such as a pedal rickshaw.

When collecting dry waste on narrow roads, a three-wheeler is a handy tool. There is nearly a three-fold increase in the collection and sorting by Sathis who use a three-wheeler. A personal transportation medium is beneficial for collecting large quantities of waste quickly. Apart from the basic facilities mentioned above, Aasra also provides them with storage and segregation spaces inside the Material Recovery Facility.
Housekeeping Staff
For years at stretch, our housekeeping Safai Sathis have been collecting mixed waste from the doorstep of households. They are the very first people in the waste collection chain who come in contact with post-consumer waste. As these Safai Sathis directly interact with citizens, we also upskill them to promote behavioral change among residents for source segregation of waste.
These Safai Sathis have been working on the same fixed wage for years with minimum increments. We support them in earning additional wages by purchasing valuable waste segregated from household collected waste. Along with fair price, we also provide them request based pickup service.