Digging through garbage
A day in the life of an Indian child scavenger
GAUHATI, India — Once school is done for the day, 10-year-old Imradul Ali rushes home to change out of his uniform so he can start his job as a scavenger in India’s remote northeast.
Armed with a gunny bag, he goes to a landfill in the slums of Gauhati, the capital of Assam state. Here, he hunts through heaps of other people’s garbage, searching for plastic bottles, glass or anything salvageable he can recycle or sell. Around him, cows graze on the mountains of waste that line the site.
Imradul comes from a family of scavengers, or “rag pickers” — his father, mother and elder brother all earn their income through it. He started doing it over a year ago to help his family make more money.
The family was hit hard last year by the covid-19 pandemic, as they couldn’t go to the landfill and sift through garbage for things to sell. They struggled during the monthslong lockdown in India but were able to get food through the help of aid organizations.
Imradul said he doesn’t want to spend his life doing this, but he doesn’t know what the future holds.
“I want to continue going to school and would like to be a rich man,” he said.
He earns up to $1.30 a day, while the rest of his family makes about $3.30 each.
“It’s very difficult to run a family by rag-picking,” said Imradul’s mother, Anuwara Begum.
Scavenging is filthy and dangerous work.
CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. — Jose Castro, a strapping 19-year-old tennis player who was attending the University of Florida on an academic scholarship, had it all.
He was a former honor student at Coral Springs Charter School, a district champion tennis player, a top 100 tennis player in Region 8 of the United States Tennis Association, an altar boy, accomplished cook, and, by his family’s description, an “incredible square dancer.”
Now he’s in a wheelchair at Broward Health Medical Center, paralyzed after falling off a boat into shallow water in Boca Raton on Dec. 20. He severely injured his spinal cord and nearly drowned.
Now, Castro is fighting to walk again. But he was a fighter from the moment he was born, five months premature and in an incubator for the first days of his life.
“I’m going to take it day by day,” Castro said about his recovery process. “But I am praying for a full recovery. Personally, I know it’s going to happen.”
Dr. Jose Lozada, the trauma surgeon who has cared for Castro, said Castro’s positive attitude and strong physical condition have helped his recovery. It’s constantly on display.
“I told my parents, I think in Week 3, even in the ICU room, ‘Don’t worry, Dad. I’m going to get through this,’” Castro said.
Castro can now move his arms and hands. During a news conference with his parents and doctors, he frequently gestured while talking.
He even has small movements in his leg.
But his rehabilitation, which began at Broward North Hospital, moved to Broward Health Medical Center and will continue at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, remains an uphill battle.
Beyond that, the expenses are immense. The family has established a fund to help with the costs of hospitalization and equipping their home. Donations are tax deductible.
Castro was on winter beak during his freshman year at Florida when the accident happened.
“When I first saw my son, we were devastated,” Jorge Castro said.
Jose Castro, who was on a ventilator and required a feeding tube, had surgery for a cervical spinal fracture, fought through collapsed lungs, a battle with pneumonia and a positive test for covid-19.
He was eventually moved to Broward Health Medical Center.
“That was a hairy ambulance ride,” Lozada said.
The positive covid test meant his parents, Jorge and Rocio, who have three other children, could only see him through a glass in the Covid Intensive Care Unit when they came to visit. Worse, they had to have short visits because they couldn’t stay with him the entire day or night.
It was an added complication on
“I’m going to take it day by day. But I am praying for a full recovery. Personally, I know it’s going to happen.”
— Jose Castro
an already tough situation, a situation so grim a few times Lozada said he started rehearsing his conversation with Jorge and Rocio.
But slowly, Jose began to recover and gain strength.
“It’s a miracle,” Rocio Castro said while stroking her son’s hair. “Jose here is a miracle.”
Jose told his doctors to push his rehabilitation. He began requesting grooming so he’d look good for his Zoom calls.
“One thing I learned about Jose,” Lozada said, “is he definitely cares what he looks like.”
Overall, things are looking up a bit nowadays.
“When I first saw him he wasn’t moving anything from the neck down,” Lozada said. “Now I see him on an iPad all the time. I see his legs twitching. There’s some activity there.”
There’s also a load of positivity there.
Jose said it isn’t tough finding motivation to wake up each morning. He said he thinks about all the people sending him well wishes.
“For me not to give my best back, I feel like I’m failing them, and I don’t like to fail anyone, especially the people like my family, God, everyone,” he said. “I just don’t want them to look at me like I didn’t succeed at something I could have.”