The Gendered Labour Geographies in the E-waste Chain: Exploring Policy Gaps and Ground Realities in India

Historically, technology has been both a site of opportunity and exclusion for women and marginalised genders, with systemic barriers limiting their access and participation in technological fields ( Wajcman, 2004 , TechnoFeminism ). This article explores the invisible and hazardous labour behind digital consumption in the Global South, particularly in the informal e-waste economy in India. Using a labour geography lens, it foregrounds how the social and environmental burdens of digital economies are spatially organised through uneven labour regimes and gendered labour practices, where the costs of digital consumption are disproportionately externalised onto precarious workers and peripheral geographies. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, including interviews, observations and policy analysis, it reveals how women and gender minorities in this sector are excluded from formal recognition, labour protections and environmental regulations, remaining systematically disconnected from safe digital access, despite being integral to the digital lifecycle. By exploring intersections of urban space, identity and labour organisation in e-waste micro value chains (aggregation, segregation and repairing), the research underscores how gendered labour dynamics shape variegated experiences of precarity. The article contributes to circular economy and urban labour geography debates by making visible the existing design, implementation and epistemic gaps in policies, such as the E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2016, ( MoEFCC, GoI, 2016 ) and by proposing a gender-sensitive policy approach that explicitly links labour protection with environmental regulation.