Increasing interest in formalizing waste systems has highlighted the need to safeguard the workforce, yet there has been little effort undertaken to understand these gendered experiences of waste workers. To effectively improve the conditions surrounding vulnerable waste workers, it is necessary to look closer at the gender dimension, and action multi-level interventions that can lead to holistic and long-term empowerment of women. It is important to remember that there is no one actor or one level that can single-handedly bring a transformative change in a sector that has been set in its ways for decades (if not longer). In this context it is important to start with what is needed and map the same to who can provide it.