Rag Pickers-the Other Volunteers of ‘Swachh Bharath’?
Mangaluru: Every Sunday morning, volunteers of Ramakrishna Mission as part of ‘Swachh Bharath/Swachh Mangaluru” clean the various parts of the City, the garbage and mess created by citizens, in spite of so many awareness programmes conducted to keep the city clean and not litter around. But the efforts of organizations and volunteers are all in vain, since citizens still dirty the place, no matter what. On the other hand we have the so-called “Rag Pickers” who not only clean the city on Sundays only but seven days a week. Ever wondered where does your daily garbage go? Not that you care but ask one of the rag pickers in modern-day India and he/she would be able to tell you every nook and corner of the city where this trash gets accumulated. For them, it is their workplace!
THE RAG pickers are as much a part of our society as we are. Just that they do not have the most respected or a dignified nine to five job. It’s a rag picker’s pride that he/she is not a beggar or a thief. You will find them almost every where scavenging the garbage cans and the garbage dumping grounds. No, it’s not food that they are after, though if they find a half eaten apple or two, it would well be a bonus for them. And it is not just rags that they are after. But they are on a constant look out for plastic, clothes, metal pieces, boxes and a host of other things that you and I throw away nonchalantly every day.
From adults to youth, these rag pickers have no source of income of their own and are often orphans or street dwellers, rag picking seems to be their favourite pastime and their main source of income as well. They scrounge around every day as soon as the waste gets deposited early in the morning at the main garbage centres. But it is not as simple as just finding the stuff and selling it to the ‘Gujri’ (Scrap) shops. The garbage picking industry has a hierarchical format with there being several middlemen who make the most of these innocent people, much like the organized retail industry.
It’s often that these rag pickers go down drains/ditches in search of the precious wastes. You may not often see them, because they aren’t really a part of your world. They are the people of a side of India that is truly incredible. Although we don’t see many children doing this dirty job, but in Bengaluru and Goa, its in the rise. But the government’s initiatives to get these people out of this life that they are a part of haven’t really created an impact. Some serious thoughts need to be put into this by the government for this concerning the futures of lakhs of children who might otherwise have had great careers ahead but because of the wrong choice of profession, it was nipped in the bud.
These rag pickers start their duty early in the morning before the Pourakarmakas of Antony waste Management hit the street for their cleaning job. Many a times there is argument between these rag pickers and pourakarmikas, where the latter don’t want the plastic bottles, card boards etc to be picked up by the rag pickers. Other day when such argument was going, yours truly of Team Mangalorean stepped in and took the Pourakarmikas to task, telling them that the garbage doesn’t belong to them- the rag pickers also have the rights to pick them up, because they depend on it for income- while Pourakarmikas get salary and other benefits. Then why are they still greedy? Be happy with your earnings, and let the rag pickers earn their living. Period.
It is high time to stand up and demand action. It is time to engage the disengaged. In all the name of modernity and development, let us not ignore the harsh realities that are a part of our society and do affect us in some way or the other. We are already losing thousands of these children to terrible diseases every year. At the age where they should be playing in the open, they are made to work in the most inhumane and suffocating atmospheres. The time is now to take action for the betterment of these rag pickers, else many of them will continue to sacrifice their lives.