Published Paper Details:

India is a fast-growing economy with a high urbanization rate. Waste management is becoming more evident in urban development. The government and the NGOs are concerned about the rising levels of waste generation happening with the development. The cities are feeling the pressure of the waste generated which is not managed properly and is often left unattended at various places in the city. There is high pressure on the ULB�s to manage the city�s waste. The ULBs, with its limited resources; manages to collect waste form some parts of the city i.e. dump sites, residential colonies, door to door collection, etc. and dumps it into a landfill as the final solution. Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has reported that during the last decade Municipal Solid waste (MSW) has increased by 2.44 times. When one landfill site becomes a heap of waste and has engulfed the whole patch of valuable land, a new site is then found to start the whole process again while no plan to manage the waste being generated. Rag pickers are the most important and integral part of the waste management in the cities, they are involved in the sector to earn their livelihood but in turn, are benefiting the environment by recycling the waste collected. The rag pickers are forced to live in poor housing conditions near waste yards or shanty slums because of the nature of their business. To assess the socio-economic condition of the rag pickers sample survey was conducted and data was analyzed to establish a relation between the housing conditions and its dependence on socio-economic factors.