Recognizing Informal Knowledge in India’s Repair Ecosystem

Beyond Repair: Recognising Informal Knowledge and Right to Remember in India’s Repair Ecosystem

Syllabus:

GS 2 ● Right to repair ● Electronics manufacturing

Why in the News?

India’s steps toward a formal “Right to Repair” and the launch of a repair portal are timely, but incomplete without acknowledging the informal, tacit knowledge that powers the country’s repair ecosystem. As sustainability and AI become national priorities, it is critical to preserve and integrate traditional, experiential learning embedded in the work of informal repair workers. Valuing such knowledge ensures environmental justice and technological inclusivity.

India’s Policy Shift Toward Repairability

• In May 2025, the Government of India accepted a report introducing a Repairability Index for electronic devices.
• This index rates products based on ease of repair, spare parts accessibility, and software support.
• Simultaneously, e-waste management policies were updated to offer minimum payments for incentivising formal recycling.
• These moves aim to support sustainable consumption, reduce landfill pressure, and give consumers greater repair choices for consumer durables.

Repair as Cultural and Knowledge Capital

• Repair in India is not only a service—it is also a cultural and intellectual tradition forming a unique repair culture.
• Policies like the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and the National Strategy on Artificial Intelligence (NSAI) focus on innovation and efficiency but often ignore informal repair ecosystems.
• Much of India’s repair expertise is tacit knowledge—skills rooted in muscle memory, observation, and hands-on experimentation, not repair manuals or formal training.
• Informal repair workers in places like Karol Bagh (Delhi) and Ritchie Street (Chennai) keep electronics functioning long past their lifecycle, offering resilience and sustainability.

How Informal Repairers Work

• These workers use modest tools and makeshift workshops to fix devices using sensory cues, improvisation, and component reuse.
• Their ingenuity compensates for a lack of repair documentation or training.
• However, this repair ecosystem is declining due to:

○ Increasingly unrepairable product designs

○ Rising consumer preference for disposability

○ Exclusion from formal skilling programmes and policy blind spots

• What is at risk is not just livelihood but also a rich, undocumented knowledge system vital to India’s technological resilience.

Why Tacit Knowledge Matters

• Tacit knowledge is passed down through mentorship, imitation, and repetition, not certification.
• This knowledge is context-sensitive and adaptive, qualities that structured digital systems and AI often fail to replicate.
• As AI systems grow more capable, they increasingly depend on real-world feedback and local insights.
• Yet, the communities contributing this knowledge remain unacknowledged and excluded from economic or intellectual recognition.
• Globally, the Right to Repair movement is gaining momentum:

○ The EU mandates access to spare parts and repair manuals

○ India’s Right to Repair framework (2022) and repair portal (2023) cover key sectors like electronics and agriculture

Digital Policy Blind Spots

• India generated 1.6 million tonnes of e-waste in 2021–22, making it the third-largest producer globally.
• The E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2022 use the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) principle to make original equipment manufacturers responsible.
• However, these rules barely mention repair as a preventive tool.
• PM Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) offers short-term industrial certifications but fails to include repair workers who use diagnostic and improvisational skills.
• NEP 2020 promotes experiential learning but offers no roadmap to support tacit learning in repair work.
• Mission LiFE promotes reuse and repair as a behavior, but doesn’t support the workers implementing it.
• Hence, while India talks about circularity, it ignores the labour force enabling it in the repair sector.

The Concept of “Unmaking” in Design

• Researchers promote “unmaking” as a valuable process—taking apart devices reveals design flaws and reuse potential.
• Repair is not a failure but a feedback mechanism that can lead to better design.
• For example:

○ A discarded circuit board can teach troubleshooting

○ A salvaged phone part can restore education or employment

• Informal repair workers engage in this daily, undocumented innovation, putting them at the core of circular economy principles.

Aligning AI, Sustainability, and Repair

• India’s culture of jugaad is deeply connected to repair and innovation.
• But modern gadgets prioritise compactness over repairability, leading to planned obsolescence.
• As per the 2023 iFixit global report, only 23% of smartphones in Asia are easily repairable due to product design.
• To address this:

○ Design norms and procurement policies must mandate repairability at the design stage

○ Sustainability must consider how devices are broken, repaired, and reused, not just manufactured

○ AI systems should be informed by data from real-world breakdowns and repairs

Institutional Actions Needed

• Ministry of Electronics and IT: Can incorporate repairability standards into AI systems and procurement.
• Department of Consumer Affairs: Can expand the Right to Repair to include product categories and local community participation under the Consumer Protection Act.
• e-Shram platform (Ministry of Labour): Can formally register informal repair workers and link them to social benefits.
• Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship: Can develop new curricula that respect diagnostic intuition and hands-on learning to enhance repair skills.
• Use decision trees and AI models to:

○ Codify repair processes

○ Capture and translate local tacit knowledge into structured repositories

○ Ensure repair information remains contextual without erasing its origin

Conclusion: The Right to Remember

• Supporting informal repair is not just about intellectual property or efficiency.
• It is about respecting embodied, human labour that keeps India running sustainably.
• As philosopher Michael Polanyi said, “We know more than we can tell.”
• By remembering what cannot be digitised, India preserves the human wisdom essential for a just, repair-ready future.
• The Right to Repair must expand to include the Right to Remember—to document, respect, and integrate local ingenuity into national tech and sustainability narratives, fostering a robust independent repair ecosystem and sustainable electronics industry.

MAINS PRACTICE QUESTION

“As India moves towards sustainability and digital transformation, discuss the importance of preserving informal repair knowledge. How can the Right to Repair be made inclusive of tacit, community-based expertise?” (250 words)