E-waste workers in India face toxic health risks

As digital consumption in India continues to grow and the amount of e-waste increases every year, the burden of managing this waste is increasingly falling on cleaning workers, who work in unsafe conditions and often without basic health protection. These workers face cuts, infections and exposure to toxic substances that come from dismantling and burning old electronic devices every day. Many of them have no gloves, no masks and no training on the risks they face.

Mateen Malik stands inside a cramped workshop in New Delhi's Mustafabad area, carefully separating copper wires from piles of discarded electronics.

Around him are broken equipment like air fresheners, tangled cables, pieces of metal, and old computers and laptops placed against the blackened walls of the workshop.

Malik's bare hands move quickly as he peels away the plastic coating of the wires to expose the copper inside. He also often uses flames to dismantle electronic devices, a process that releases highly toxic chemicals into the air, posing serious health risks.

"Sometimes it's difficult to extract the material and I don't have any protective equipment, no gloves, no mask. I often get burned on my hands. This is routine in our work. There is also chemical residue," Malik told Al Jazeera. "But I am addicted to this job."

Malik, in his early twenties, is an unofficial and untrained e-waste sorter in Mustafabad, one of India's unregistered waste centers, where the narrow, dusty alleys are filled with the constant sound of hammers and the smell of burning plastic and metal.

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An average worker here earns about a dollar for dismantling a mobile phone and double that for a television, coming to about $8 a day for 12 hours of grueling work - without gloves, masks or protective equipment.

The hidden cost of this work is much greater: chronic diseases, environmental pollution, and generations exposed to toxic substances.

"Dangerous work"

India is the third largest generator of e-waste in the world after China and the United States, with recycling volume growing almost 23 percent every year.

In March this year, the federal minister of state for environment, forests and climate change, Kirti Vardhan Singh, told parliament that India had generated more than 1.4 million metric tonnes of e-waste in 2025–2026, of which about 979.000 tonnes were recycled.

According to a report submitted by the Central Pollution Control Board to the National Green Tribunal, New Delhi alone produces nearly 10 percent of India's e-waste, at about 230.000 metric tons per year.

Behind this discarded equipment lies a vast network of scrap dealers, repair shops and backyard dismantlers, who often work with little or no knowledge of the toxic hazards they face.

As digital consumption in India grows and e-waste increases, the burden of managing it falls largely on workers like Malik, without sufficient protection from everyday hazards.

In another small workshop, thin streams of black smoke rise as Muhammad Faizan burns insulated wire to extract copper.

Visible parts of the workshop walls are blackened by the ongoing burning. The smell of molten plastic lingers in the air as the migrant worker from the Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh state works with three other men in a very tight space.

"It's dangerous work. I sit in the same place every day from 9am to 8pm. While dismantling equipment, I often get my hands cut. And when we burn the plastic to extract the metal, I inhale the smoke," he told Al Jazeera.

"They pay us according to the amount of metal we extract, so it depends on how many kilograms I manage to extract each day."

Nearby, a group of female workers stand together in another workshop, separating copper, silver and even traces of gold from discarded electronic chips and hard drives, with their bare hands.

The heat inside the room is stifling, while piles of electronic devices take up almost the entire narrow space, leaving little room to move.

"The working conditions are difficult, the space is small, with only a few fans that barely provide relief in this heat," Shakila, a 48-year-old migrant worker from West Bengal state, told Al Jazeera. "We also get frequent cuts on our hands and infections."

Sometimes, she said, she doesn't get to finish her part of the work and takes it home. "They pay us less than men, but at least we earn something."

Al Jazeera contacted India's Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee regarding worker safety and enforcement of relevant regulations, but did not receive a response.

Families also affected

Bharati Chaturvedi, founder and director of Chintan, an environmental research and action organization, says that one of the main characteristics of the informal e-waste economy in India is the mixing of residential and work spaces.

"Very often, a worker lives on the top floor, while the dismantling of equipment takes place on the ground floor or on the roof," she told Al Jazeera.

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"The first thing that strikes you is the proximity to these materials, many of which are broken and discarded, with lead dust and other toxins. They can even catch fire," she said.

"Workers often use flames to dismantle equipment, releasing even more toxic substances into the air."

The consequences are not limited to the workers. Their families, including children, are often exposed to these substances because they live in the same spaces where e-waste is processed.

"There is a huge impact, especially on children, because of the heavy toxins. There is a significant lack of accountability for improving workers' conditions," Chaturvedi said, describing a range of health risks associated with informal recycling, including cuts, infections, exposure to lead, toxic dust and hazardous chemicals.

"If you're exposed to lead, the body has a very hard time absorbing iron. People can become anemic and weak. The same goes for women and children, because they live in the same place they work," she added.

According to the World Health Organization, informal recycling activities can release toxic substances such as lead, mercury, cadmium, and dioxins into the environment. The WHO has linked these exposures to neurodevelopmental impairment, decreased lung function, and respiratory diseases, especially in children living near these recycling areas.

Last year, a study of informal e-waste workers in Delhi's Seelampur area found that they face significant health risks at work, while having little knowledge about the dangers associated with handling e-waste. Despite the risk, only about 10 percent of workers regularly use personal protective equipment (PPE), citing high cost and discomfort during use as the main reasons.

Although India has laws and regulations for managing e-waste, informal recyclers often bypass them, unlike licensed workshops. Government data shows that India has only 322 authorized e-waste recyclers, while researchers estimate that the informal sector still handles about 95 percent of discarded electronic devices.

Rehman, who asked not to be named, owns a small workshop in Mustafabad, employing six workers. He says profits in the business are very low, making it difficult to provide protective equipment and better working conditions.

"We cannot afford the infrastructure and conditions that the big recycling companies have. Here we pay workers according to the amount of waste they process. How will the business survive if we increase costs?" he told Al Jazeera.

A 2019 report by Toxics Link, an environmental non-governmental organization, identified at least 15 informal e-waste sites in New Delhi that do not comply with occupational safety measures or environmental standards, exposing both workers and surrounding communities to dangerous pollutants.

Call for reform and inclusion

Chaturvedi says the government should focus on integrating informal workers into the formal economy, rather than designing policies that aim to exclude them.

"The way I see it is that you have to formalize people. You can't always leave them informal," she said.

Previous versions of India's e-waste policies allowed for the creation of cooperatives, self-help groups and associations that could obtain licenses for collection and dismantling, but these provisions no longer exist, she added.

“When you don't involve people, you can't make them respect the rules. And if you don't involve them, you can't help them improve their working conditions either,” Chaturvedi said, emphasizing the need for affordable workspaces, political support and training programs.

Satish Sinha, co-director at Toxics Link, said that informal workers in India continue to play a central role in the e-waste economy, despite being officially excluded from it.

"According to the law, informal workers are not supposed to deal with this waste. But in reality, the law is not implemented like that. The informal sector continues to play a major role. They collect, stack, transport and to a large extent dismantle electronic devices. Some even extract metals from them," he told Al Jazeera.

According to Sinha, informal workers can be included in the system, but some processes require much stricter control.

“I think they can engage in collection. They can transport materials according to certain guidelines and they can trade with them. But I’m not saying they should dismantle electronic waste or extract metals from it. These processes should be carried out under strictly controlled conditions, safe for the environment and health,” he said.

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As evening falls in Mustafabad, the sound of hammers and the dismantling of electronic devices continues behind closed doors, as workers separate parts that can later be returned to the supply chain.

"We have no other job; we are dependent on this. It gives us an income and helps us survive in a city like New Delhi," says Shakila.