Who bears the cost of a clean transition? Battery circularity and gender justice in India’s electric mobility shift

Title : Who bears the cost of a clean transition? Battery circularity and gender justice in India’s electric mobility shift

Abstract:

India’s transition to electric mobility is increasingly framed as a pathway towards decarbonisation, energy security, and sustainable development. Yet, the environmental benefits of electric vehicles cannot be understood through vehicle adoption and reduced tailpipe emissions alone. Battery production, critical-minerals dependence, resource recovery, labour, and end-of-life management create new material and social challenges. This paper examines these less visible dimensions through the concept of just circularity, asking who benefits from and who bears the environmental, economic, and social costs of battery circularity in India’s emerging electric mobility transition.

The paper builds on doctoral research on lead-acid battery waste management in Delhi-NCR, which used mixed methods and a systems-oriented approach to examine formal and informal recycling, stakeholder practices, resource recovery, and policy implementation. It extends this research to electric-vehicle batteries, with particular attention to marginalised women associated to resource-recovery systems. Rather than viewing these women solely as vulnerable workers exposed to environmental risks, the paper recognises them as economic actors, knowledge holders, and participants in circular economies. The analysis brings Just Transition Theory and Sustainability Transitions Theory into dialogue, complemented by insights from Feminist Political Ecology. This framework examines how labour, risks, resources, knowledge, recognition, and decision-making are distributed across emerging battery value chains. The paper argues that circularity does not automatically produce justice. Battery recycling may reduce pressure on primary resources while simultaneously reproducing unequal labour relations and environmental burdens. A just circular economy therefore requires attention not only to material efficiency and resource recovery but also to recognition, participation, livelihoods, and equitable distribution of transition costs and benefits. The paper contributes to debates on sustainable mobility, circular economy, environmental justice, and just transitions in the Global South.

Key Words: Just Circular Economy; Electric Mobility; Battery Circularity; Gender Justice; Sustainability Transitions

Biography:

Dr. Sanoj is a researcher in Science Policy and Sustainability Studies whose work focuses on just circular economy, sustainability transitions, resource governance, battery waste, and environmental justice. He completed his PhD in 2025 at the Centre for Studies in Science Policy, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, examining lead-acid battery waste management in Delhi-NCR through a mixed-methods and systems-oriented approach. His research engaged with formal and informal recycling systems, resource recovery, stakeholders, and policy implementation. He also holds an M.Phil. in Science Policy, where his research examined consumer awareness and disposal behaviour related to sustainable battery-waste management. His current research extends this work to electric mobility, battery circularity, gender justice, and the social distribution of transition costs and benefits. His broader research interest is in understanding how circular economies can become more inclusive and just, particularly for marginalised communities and workers in the Global South.