The Hindu : New Delhi News : Rag pickers waiting to be recognised

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 03, 2007
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New Delhi

New Delhi

Rag pickers waiting to be recognised

Staff Reporter

After privatisation of garbage collection, things have become wore for rag pickers

NEW DELHI: They are fighting for a right on the Capital's refuse. They spend their whole day in garbage dumps, but over two lakh rag pickers in the Capital are still waiting to be recognised.

"Things have become much worse after the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) privatised the collection of garbage. It has increased the harassment we face. I have been collecting waste from flats in the Moti Bagh area for years now. But after private contractors came into the picture, it has become impossible for us to exist there. If in the next few months things stay the same, we will not be able to survive,'' rued Nasrul, a rag picker at a press conference organised by Bal Vikas Dhara here.

While the rag pickers claim that harassment by the police has become a matter of routine for them, the move to privatise garbage collection is a big blow to a community that is already on the fringes of society.

"There are many issues in the privatisation of waste which need to be looked at in detail. These contracts are awarded for huge sums of money. Segregation is an important aspect of disposal of waste and so is recycling. However, these aspects are not looked at. The amount of segregation that the contractors are required to do under the contract is much too low,'' pointed out Lavanya Marla, co-ordinator of Environmental Research and Action Group Chintan.

The non-government organisations claim that the rag pickers in the city save the MCD Rs. 6lakh to 8 lakh a day. And so they are hoping that the Delhi Government will step in to give this sector a right on waste collection.

"In Pune and Mumbai, the municipalities have given the rag pickers a place to segregate the waste. They have also helped them form a cooperative. Our demand is that the Government provide place for the rag pickers to segregate the waste. The contracts that the MCD has signed with private companies for garbage collection also clearly state that the contractors involve rag pickers working in the area. Where is the monitoring on that?'' asked Ms. Marla.

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