The Union government on Tuesday (February 3, 2026) for the first time released data on the ongoing enumeration of waste-pickers across the country, showing that a total of 1.52 lakh such workers had been profiled and validated so far across urban areas of 35 States and Union Territories. At the national level, 84.5% of overall waste-pickers were from Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, and Other Backward Class communities and 10.7% from General category communities.
At the State/UT level, there were some outliers, where waste-pickers from the General category constituted a significant majority. For instance, in Delhi and Goa, those from General category communities outnumbered those from SC, ST, and OBC communities put together. In West Bengal, General category workers constituted 42.4% of all those profiled and validated.
