Impact Case Study: Understanding intersections of gender, health, and leadership with women waste workers in India

Through the ARISE programme, the George Institute India (TGI) supported the co-creation and strengthening of spaces for women waste workers to convene and discuss issues related to gender, health and wellbeing. This led to women engaging more with collectives to bring their issues to the fore. After four years, women waste workers are willing to take up leadership roles in collectives to ensure that issues relevant to women can be discussed in these spaces. The women waste workers have also volunteered to directly participate in discussions with government officials. At a waste workers’ collective meeting in August 2023, four women waste workers from Shimla volunteered to occupy leadership positions within their collective. This change is significant as it reflects increased confidence among women waste workers to partake in leadership spaces.

Alongside this understanding around women’s health has shifted away from being tethered to linear cycles of reproduction to consider the social determinants of health. This broader perspective has led to action both within women waste worker groups in Shimla, and from duty bearers who were able to listen and adapt their services to address community priorities.

Providing safe spaces for women waste workers to come together and lead discussions around gender, health and wellbeing opened up new opportunities for peer-to-peer exchange. The open nature of the spaces created by ARISE meant discussions and priorities were adaptable to meet the demands and interests of the women waste workers, where previously their needs and voices had been absent from discussions.

The active and steady encouragement ARISE has received from various health system actors enabled them to obtain permissions, establish the credibility of the research team and attract interest from a public tertiary care facility to collaborate and expand their work with their staff. This demonstrates the value and importance of the work being done by ARISE to address this lack of understanding. Health system actors’ interest in the work has led to the co-production of workshops on menstrual health.