A notable characteristic of municipal service delivery is that the workforce is predominately drawn from the poorer groups within the city. The provision of waste-related services - be they informal or municipal - is invariably carried out by the poorest groups. Their status and vulnerability and their marginalisation from society is closely linked to the low status of the jobs they perform. Many women take on street sweeping and rag-picking as a part of their livelihood strategy; and the poorest, lower castes in South Asia are invariably responsible for emptying and cleaning pit latrines. While it is common to see the partnership development process being concerned with the political sensitivities of municipal workers - and with concrete proposals for their re-employment in partnership arrangements - less attention has been paid to the impact of partnerships on informal sector workers, and it is vital that mechanisms are established to address their role in the future. The following section supplements the discussion on these actors provided in Chapter 6, and considers some of the key social issues concerning workers that should be addressed through the partnership framework.