By: Lara Sewers
On October
2, Delhi’s Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit
promised a new beginning in administrative matters in his “India of my
Dreams” pledge. Marking Gandhi’s birthday, he took the opportunity to express
his gratitude to all the officers and state employees that perform valuable
services to the state and the people. He may have forgotten about a
significant group; Delhi’s
trash collectors. A group of India’s
poorest and most marginalized people take over the job of garbage disposal in New Delhi were no formal
system of collection is in place. But do not panic, the Chief Minister has
inaugurated a training program designed to provide training to the “ragpickers”
on safe and adequate collection practices and has promised to provide them with
gloves and aprons. “The very fact that we have acknowledged that we need to
look after their health is a tremendous acknowledgment of their dignity,” said
the Secretary of Delhi’s Environment Ministry. But, is it?
Around
89,000 ragpickers in New Delhi alone provide this valuable service that the government has neglected. They are
not on the government’s or anybody else’s payroll. Instead, they rely on
donations from the communities they serve. This is not the only thing they receive;
police officers administer their occasional beatings out of suspicion when they
encounter these workers in residential areas early in the morning. Some people
express their gratitude by further alienating them and in conjunction with city
authorities harassing them to move along when they are trying to sort out the
trash to recycle what they can.
Ragpickers,
after centuries of submission, have begun to make demands for respect and
dignity. They are unimpressed and unmoved by the city’s concessions of gloves
and aprons. “They do not want gloves, they say. They want wages, pensions,
health care, uniforms that they hope will discourage police harassment,
education for their children and decent housing.”
They acknowledge the importance of the work they perform and believe the city
could do much more to help them make a living in exchange for their hard work.
However, there is little they can do to push the government to grant them some
of their requests. They depend on the meager donations they receive to support
their families and cannot afford to strike or quit working.
India’s
system of waste disposal while lacking formalization by the state is highly
organized. Recycling of papers and plastics is among the most efficient in the
world. Considering India’s
population and the lack of state or private sector involvement in this duty, it
is an amazing accomplishment, driven in large part by these trash collectors.
Despite their vital contribution to society, they remain a neglected group and
their demands for dignity are rendered meaningless by small and insignificant
concessions like the training program now in place.
For now,
the ragpickers are left to rely on donations by those kind enough to
acknowledge the important service they are being provided. They will continue
looking in the trash for something of value they can salvage and maybe their
next meal.
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