India must recognise repair as valuable knowledge

Source: The post India must recognise repair as valuable knowledge has been created, based on the article “The ‘right to repair’ must include ‘right to remember’” published in “The Hindu” on 4th August 2025. India must recognise repair as valuable knowledge.

UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 2- Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Context: India’s adoption of a Repairability Index and updated e-waste policies in 2025 marks a shift toward sustainable electronics. However, a deeper transformation is needed—one that values informal repair work not just as service but as vital, culturally rooted knowledge essential for resilience and sustainability.

For detailed information on India’s Repairability Index aims to make electronic items more durable

read this article here

Recognising Repair as Knowledge Work

1. Beyond Policy Compliance: The government is advancing policies on repairability and recycling, but repair must be seen as a form of knowledge, not only a consumer right.
2. The Invisible Repair Economy: India’s informal repair sector—from Delhi’s Karol Bagh to Chennai’s Ritchie Street—sustains devices long after their designed lifespan. Yet, it remains excluded from policy frameworks.
3. Tacit Knowledge and Material Resilience: Repairers use muscle memory, sensory cues, and improvisation rather than manuals. Their skills ensure material resilience and must be preserved.

Why Tacit Knowledge Matters

1. Learning by Doing: Skills are transferred through mentorship and observation, not formal training. This tacit method fosters adaptability and creativity, which standardised systems often lack.
2. Under-recognised Contribution to AI: AI systems increasingly benefit from insights drawn from such hands-on labour. However, those who contribute this foundational knowledge remain largely unrecognised.
3. Global and Indian Repair Initiatives: The EU mandates repair access, while India launched a Right to Repair framework in 2022 and a national portal in 2023. Yet, repair must be viewed as knowledge production, not just a service.

Policy Gaps in India’s Digital Strategy

1. E-Waste Rules and Repair Oversight: India generated over 1.6 million tonnes of e-waste in 2021–22, becoming the third-largest producer. While the 2022 rules promote Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), they overlook repair as prevention.
2. Exclusion from Skilling Programmes: Schemes like PMKVY focus on industrial training. The improvisational nature of repair does not fit such frameworks, leaving informal repairers excluded.
3. Overlooked Workforce in Sustainability Campaigns: Campaigns like Mission LiFE encourage reuse but do not support the repairers who make this possible. Policies risk sidelining them while promoting circularity.

Repair as Sustainability and Design Principle

1. ‘Unmaking’ as Design Insight: The process of disassembling, repairing, and reusing reveals design flaws and reuse potential. Breakdowns become feedback loops, not failures.
2. Repairers at the Core of Circularity: They practice daily reuse and restoration, making circularity real. Recognising them reshapes our view of innovation and sustainability.

Aligning AI Policy with Repair Justice

1. Design for Repairability: Most modern gadgets are built for compactness, not repair. Only 23% of smartphones in Asia are easily repairable. Design standards must embed repairability from inception.
2. Coordinated Institutional Action

Ministries can collaborate:

• MeitY: Add repairability to AI and procurement policy.
• Consumer Affairs: Expand Right to Repair with product classification.
• Labour Ministry: Use e-Shram to recognise informal repairers.
• Skill Ministry: Create training aligned with tacit repair knowledge.

3. Tech Tools for Knowledge Sharing: Decision trees and LLMs can structure and share tacit knowledge while preserving its context, enabling scalable learning.

A Human-Centred Repair Future

1. Valuing Embodied Labour: Repair work is essential knowledge that supports digital and material systems. Recognising it is key to a just, inclusive tech future.
2. Preserving the Non-Digital: As Michael Polanyi, Hungarian-British scientist and philosopher, observed, “We know more than we can tell.” By valuing what cannot be codified, we preserve the human wisdom vital to sustainable innovation.

Question for practice:

Examine how recognising informal repair work as knowledge can contribute to a sustainable and inclusive technological future in India.