Indian ragpickers - 300,000 of them!
Picking Up Trash by Hand, and Yearning for Dignity
New Delhi Journal
Picking Up Trash by Hand, and Yearning for Dignity
By AMELIA GENTLEMAN
Published: September 27, 2007
An essential class of workers, garbage collectors in India’s capital are among the city’s poorest and most marginalized groups.
Excerpt:
A garbage collector in India’s capital, Ms. Begum is one of 300,000 little-seen workers who perform a vital role for the city: rifling through the detritus of modern life, recycling anything of worth and carefully disposing of the rest.
More than 95 percent of New Delhi has no formal system of house-to-house garbage collection, so it falls to the city’s ragpickers, one of India’s poorest and most marginalized groups, to provide this basic service. They are not paid by the state, relying instead on donations from the communities they serve and on meager profits from the sale of discarded items.
New Delhi Journal
Picking Up Trash by Hand, and Yearning for Dignity
By AMELIA GENTLEMAN
Published: September 27, 2007
An essential class of workers, garbage collectors in India’s capital are among the city’s poorest and most marginalized groups.
Excerpt:
A garbage collector in India’s capital, Ms. Begum is one of 300,000 little-seen workers who perform a vital role for the city: rifling through the detritus of modern life, recycling anything of worth and carefully disposing of the rest.
More than 95 percent of New Delhi has no formal system of house-to-house garbage collection, so it falls to the city’s ragpickers, one of India’s poorest and most marginalized groups, to provide this basic service. They are not paid by the state, relying instead on donations from the communities they serve and on meager profits from the sale of discarded items.
Comment: Interesting read. First I had heard of this! Image from toxicslink.blogspot.com
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