Our Context
India, along with most of the developing world, is being fundamentally transformed by both globalization and urbanization. Although it is increasingly being recognized for its role as a key player in world affairs, India remains home to 300 million people who live on less than a dollar a day.

According to some projections, by 2030, not only will 50% of India be urbanized, but along with China, it will also cradle 50% of the world’s slums. A special characteristic of the urban Indian dynamic is the work of hundreds of thousands of informal sector waste-recyclers : waste pickers, waste buyers and waste reprocessors. They bear the brunt of a city’s consumption and offer it critical recycling services. Given that one of the biggest environmental problems in Indian cities is that of waste and toxics, Chintan approaches these issues as entry points to address concerns of environmental and social justice and environmental governance. Our work is informed by several other ongoing dialogues - the Millennium Development Goals, several international conventions, such as the Stockholm Convention, the Kyoto Protocol, the Convention of the Rights of the Child, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and The Rio Declaration of 1992, which we re-envision in our specific context.

Our Approach
Our main approaches involve capacity building for dignified livelihood generation for the informal sector engaged in environmental service provision, inclusion of the urban poor in policy making, research and advocacy on issues of environmental justice and environmental governance, and education and awareness-raising for children and adults, ranging from school children and their parents to policy makers. We work in partnerships, constantly learning and evolving through our work.