LIFE AS A ‘RAG PICKER’
Deadly work in New Delhi
Six months ago, Marjina stepped off a train in New Delhi with her two children, hoping to find a better life after her husband abandoned them without so much as a goodbye.
She thought leaving her home in West Bengal to find work in the Indian capital would give her children a chance at a better life. But the only job she could find was as a “ragpicker” — picking through other people’s garbage to find sal- vageable bits to resell or recycle.
It is filthy, dangerous work, performed by millions across India. Rag-picking is effectively the primary recycling system in India. But the work is by no means environmentally friendly. While ragpickers offer invaluable services, they have few rights. Every day, they are exposed to deadly poisons.
Marjina and her children — daughter Murshida, 12, and son Shahid-ul, 7 — spent their day at a landfill on the outskirts of New Delhi. The next morning they would sit outside their single-room shanty and sort the trash into metal, plastic and paper. The children counted themselves lucky if they found a discarded toy or plastic jewelry to play with.
Marjina’s children were constantly sick. Her daughter contracted dengue fever and had to be hospitalized.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently launched a “Clean India” campaign in which he asked people to help keep their surroundings tidy. But there were no benefits announced for people like Marjina.