Nalini Shekar, is the cofounder of Hasiru Dala, a social impact organisation that focuses on securing justice for waste pickers through interventions co-created with waste pickers, and is an Ashoka fellow since 2023. Nalini has trained several hundred waste pickers, officials and policy makers on the inclusive, sustainable solid waste management. She has also worked with many ULBs, and gram panchayats on policy issues relating to solid waste and plastic waste management. She has also co-authored a book 'Valuing Urban Waste: The Need for a Comprehensive Recycling Policy' (2018).

In the past, she co-founded Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPKP), a union of waste pickers with over 10,000 members in Pune in 1997 that went on to be the first member of the Global Alliance of Waste Pickers in Asia. After setting up KKPKP, she moved to the United States and spent a decade working on issues of violence against women and children, and was part of a group that facilitated the passage of legislation to support victims of Human trafficking in California. In her 33 years of career, she has won several awards such as the Kempegowda Award 2015, and the Namma Bengalurean of the Year 2020. Nalini was featured in the book 'Dream Chasers - Women Entrepreneurs from the South of Vindyas' authored by Shobha Warrier. She was also chosen as one of 100 women in India who make a difference in society by the BBC.