Work begins at 3 a.m. every day for Ganga Bai, a ragpicker who works in Kamakhya area, and she puts in nearly 10 hours to segregate paper, plastic and metals. Ganga Bai and thousands of other rag pickers, who are integral to unorganised waste disposal system in the city, are responsible for segregating nearly 1,050 tonnes on a daily basis.
Their efforts help the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) save Rs. 84 crore a year and to celebrate their efforts, Hasiru Habba, an annual event of ragpickers’ organisation Hasiru Dala , was held at Freedom Park here on Wednesday.
Bringing together over 1,000 ragpickers from across the city, the event witnessed their enthusiastic participation in various competitions. They competed with each other in the rangoli competition, musical chairs. For other, the event meant a rest from the stressful work and many could be seen queuing up at food stalls at the event.
Nalini Shekar, co-founder of Hasiru Dala, explained how the job of ragpickers involves minor accidents and injuriesand she stressed the necessity for Primary Health Centres for them.
The organisation’s other two demands were to include non-State citizens into the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana and to initiate efforts for a policy at the State and the national-level to empower ragpickers.
Health Minister U.T. Khader, who attended the event, assured ragpickers of introducing a mobile health care unit that would take care of health issues of ragpickers in the city.
Hasiru Habba brings together over 1,000 ragpickers from across the city
