[Themaintainers] The Author Speaks is back with our next captivating session!

[Repair Cafe Collective India]

[image: Copy of graphic possibilities from past maintainers announcements
(5).jpg]
Hi,
This time on The Author Speaks, we present an author from the Global South
whose work is widely referenced in Phd-level higher-education discourse.

Of Poverty and Plastic: Scavenging and Scrap trading entrepreneurs in
India’s Urban Informal Economy, Kaveri Gill offers a unique perspective of
maintenance work in the developing context of Indian cities. Her work is on
plastic waste workers in the capital city context of Delhi, India. The book
highlights the opportunities for class mobility for maintenance workers
while still being rooted in the traditional caste-based hierarchies. It
helps us relook at the relationship between maintenance work and caste.

Kaveri Gill shows us how the Khatik community dominates the plastic
recycling trade and have the first mover advantage. However, for the
Khatiks the plastic recycling trade is a means of class mobility, as they
move up the ladder from sorting wet (ritually unclean waste) to relatively
dry (ritually less polluted waste). So much so that the profits the Khatiks
have managed to turn around in this business attracts entrepreneurs from
other caste (higher). The plastic recycling business therefore benefits a
wide range of class stratification and differentiation.

Kaveri Gill shows us a case of a plastic recycling cluster, anchored around
the market situated at Mundka in north-west of Delhi. For her survey, she
chooses slums that are located within a five kilometers radius of the
market, where a large number of individuals dependent on the plastic
recycling work for a living. The respondents in the survey conducted by
her, are involved in the plastic recycling trade at various capacities.
There are those who are waste pickers, itinerant buyers, plastic mazdoors
and plastic go-down owners. She goes on to illustrate a compelling account
of livelihoods of the waste workers while also presenting comparisons with
other informal micro-entrepreneurs residing in the same slums.

This program is organized by The Maintainers. For Registration
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf-gn0NSKVbZhuwLXkXoG02Zfowuz153TkM_7XoVFikL7e-4A/viewform>
please visit this link.

Our last featured author is mentioned here.
https://lnkd.in/d6vGQViZ

*Looking forward to joining this event.*

*Thanks and regards*
Purna <https://www.linkedin.com/in/purnasarkar/>
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