India’s Right to Repair: Respecting Repairers & Sustainability
India’s Right to Repair boosts sustainability, respects local repairers’ skills, and balances digital privacy and tech access.
Introduction: More Than Just Fixing Things
Have you ever broken your favourite toy or phone and wondered if it could be fixed instead of thrown away? Kinnari Gatare, in her article “The ‘Right to Repair’ must Include ‘Right to Remember’” (The Hindu, 4th August 2025), talks about why repairing things is important not just for saving money, but also for saving our environment and keeping old knowledge alive. She says fixing things is about more than just making them work again—it is about learning, helping the planet, and respecting the people who know how to repair. But not everyone agrees with mixing the “right to repair” with the “right to remember,” especially when it comes to personal or digital information. In this essay, we explain her ideas in a way that is easy for everyone to understand, discuss what some people worry about, and share how India can make things better for everyone.
What Is the Right to Repair?
The “Right to Repair” is a rule or law that gives people the power to fix their own gadgets and appliances, or to go to any repair shop they want. For example, if your phone stops working, you should be able to fix it yourself or go to the local repair shop, not just the company’s service centre. But sometimes, companies make this hard by not selling spare parts, keeping instructions secret, or even gluing products shut so they cannot be opened easily.
To make things better, in May 2025, the Indian government started something called the “Repairability Index.” This is a score that tells you how easy it is to fix a product. If something is easy to open, has spare parts, and gets software updates, it gets a higher score. At the same time, the government made new rules to encourage people to recycle old gadgets, which helps keep electronic waste (e-waste) out of landfills. This is important because old phones and computers can be dangerous for the environment if they are just thrown away.
Planned obsolescence is another problem that these new rules try to fix. This is when companies design things to break quickly, so you have to buy a new one sooner. The new rules hope to save people money, cut down on waste, and help protect the earth.
India’s Real Repair Experts: The Informal Repair Economy
Kinnari Gatare reminds us that most repairs in India are not done by big companies. They are done by small, local repairers—people with little shops, or those who work from home or even a stall on the street. These people fix phones, radios, TVs, fans, and much more. Some work in busy markets like Karol Bagh in Delhi or Ritchie Street in Chennai.
Most of these repairers do not have certificates or formal training. Instead, they learn by watching others and practising—sometimes for years. This kind of learning is called tacit knowledge.
Tacit knowledge means “knowing how to do something” without needing a textbook. It is like learning to ride a bike. You can read about it, but you only really learn by getting on the bike and trying. A good repairer might be able to fix a phone by listening to it or looking closely at its parts, skills they have picked up from experience and not from reading a manual.
This knowledge is often passed down in families or through watching a master at work. You do not need exams or classes; you just learn by doing.
Why Tacit Knowledge Is Valuable
Tacit knowledge is extremely important. It helps India’s repairers fix things even when they do not have fancy tools or all the spare parts. They can come up with clever solutions, reusing old parts or inventing ways to make things work again. This saves families a lot of money and helps reduce waste, because old gadgets are kept working instead of being thrown out.
This is part of something called the circular economy. In a circular economy, things are used, repaired, reused, or recycled, instead of just being used once and then thrown away. This is better for the environment because it creates less rubbish and pollution. It’s the opposite of a “throwaway culture,” where people always buy new things and get rid of the old ones.
When Policy Leaves Out the Real Experts
Even though these repairers do important work, government policies and training often forget about them. The Department of Consumer Affairs made a Right to Repair policy and a special website, but most official job training (like the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana, or PMKVY) is for factory jobs or big companies. These programmes focus on skills that can be tested easily, but the skills needed for repair—like problem-solving and creativity—are not always easy to measure with a test.
India’s education plan (the National Education Policy 2020) says hands-on skills are important. But there is no clear way for people who are already good at repair to get recognised or supported by the government. Most learn by working with someone who knows the trade, not from a classroom.
What About Artificial Intelligence?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is when computers can “learn” from data and help with tasks usually done by people, like predicting when a gadget might break or suggesting what is wrong with it. AI is very good at looking at information that is written down clearly, like repair manuals or statistics.
But AI is not good at understanding tacit knowledge—the kind of skill you can only get from experience. This means, as AI becomes more important in repair shops and factories, the knowledge of India’s best repairers might not get passed on.
A good idea is to use AI to help collect and share the stories and methods of real repairers, so more people can learn from their experience—even if it can’t all be put into a textbook.
Learning by Taking Apart: The Value of “Unmaking”
Gatare also introduces the idea of “unmaking.” This means taking things apart to understand how they work, find out what is broken, or use their parts for other repairs. “Unmaking” is not failing—it is discovering! Taking apart a broken phone or computer can teach someone a lot about how things are made and how they break. Sometimes, parts from an old gadget can be used to fix something else, or to help someone get back to work or school.
Why We Must Not Forget Our Repair Traditions
Gatare warns that if we do not support India’s local repairers, all this special knowledge could disappear. Many new gadgets are designed to be hard to open or repair. Sometimes, companies use glue instead of screws or keep repair manuals secret. As people get used to just throwing things away and buying new, fewer youngsters want to learn repair skills. If this happens, India could lose not only thousands of jobs but also clever problem-solving skills and a big part of its culture.
The Other Side: Is a “Right to Remember” Always Good?
Some people think that connecting the “right to repair” with a big “right to remember” (meaning having access to all the information stored on a device) is not always a good idea. Here’s why:
- Privacy Concerns: If every repairer could see everything stored on your phone, like your messages or photos, your privacy could be in danger. In India, the law says people should have the “right to be forgotten”—to delete personal information—not the right to remember everything forever.
- Security Risks: Storing lots of information on gadgets makes them easier targets for hackers—people who break into devices to steal information. Keeping less data means less chance of getting hacked.
- Protecting Secrets: Companies that design new gadgets have special secrets (called intellectual property). If everyone can see all the instructions, repair logs, or software, companies might stop making new things because their secrets would not be safe.
- More Trouble, More Waste: If companies are forced to keep all repair data forever, gadgets would become more expensive and need more memory, which uses more electricity and makes more waste.
- Global Best Practices: In Europe and the US, the right to repair is supported, but it is kept separate from access to private or digital data. They don’t mix repair rights with remembering all the information inside gadgets.
Finding the Right Balance
Experts say the best idea is to keep the “right to repair” and the “right to remember” as two different things. Here is what India should do:
- Make sure repairers get the tools and guides they need—but do not give them people’s private data.
- Use computers and AI to share how to repair things, not to share people’s personal information.
- Ask companies to design products that are easier to fix, without making things confusing or unsafe.
- Create programmes that give informal repairers the respect and training they deserve, maybe by helping them join government schemes.
- Write clear rules so that both repair rights and privacy rights are respected.
Making the Future Fair and Sustainable
Kinnari Gatare ends her article by asking India to value its repairers and the wisdom that cannot always be written down. If India can make fair repair laws and protect people’s privacy, it will be a leader in saving the environment and keeping its traditions alive. This is not just about gadgets. It is about showing respect for human skills and using creativity to “do more with less.”
Repairing is not only about fixing what is broken—it is about learning, caring, and making things last. By supporting both the right to repair and keeping our old repair knowledge, India can make sure its future is greener, fairer, and includes everyone.
Conclusion: Remembering What Really Matters
To sum up, Kinnari Gatare’s article teaches us to see repair as more than a job. It is a tradition that helps our country, saves our planet, and keeps old knowledge alive. While it is important to fix gadgets and share skills, we must also protect people’s privacy and secrets. With clear rules and by respecting everyone’s rights, India can keep its repair traditions strong and protect everyone’s future.
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The Source’s Authority and Ownership of the Article is Claimed By THE STUDY IAS BY MANIKANT SINGH
