ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on formality and informality in commodity exchanges and labour contracts in relation to waste generated through the town’s economic circuits: in urban production, distribution, consumption, the production of human labour and the reproduction of urban society. The urban Poverty Line has been revised upwards on Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy data by the Rangarajan Committee from the Tendulkar Planning Commission’s ₹33 per day to ₹47 per day. In India, waste is rarely discussed as a problem of caste discrimination. The handling of waste is a specialised activity inside the industries, whether waste is heaved over the compound wall, deposited in a river bed, or sold as raw materials. Waste—materials and substances without value—is constantly generated in all production, all distribution and all consumption. Waste from consumption is deposited on roadside verges and spare plots of land. Waste work is stigmatised throughout the world but, in this respect, India is exemplary.
