29-01-2013, 11:14 AM
RAG-PICKERS
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INTRODUCTION
RAG-PICKERS:India’s booming urbanization brings the problem of waste management. As more people are migrating towards the cities, the amount of waste is increasing at a high pace and waste
management is likely to become a critical issue in the coming years.
Ragpickers play an important, but usually unrecognised role in the waste management system
of Indian cities. They collect garbage in search of recyclable items that can be sold to scrap
merchant (paper, plastic, tin...) This activity require no skills and is a source of income for a
growing number of urban poors.
A Rag-picker, or Chiffonnier, was a 19th- and early 20th-century term for someone who made a living by rummaging through refuse in the streets to collect material for salvage
They are required to collect, bottles, plastic, metal parts, glass pieces and alike. They also collect food-waste for their consumption
The rag-pickers did not recycle the materials themselves; they would simply collect whatever they could find and turn it over to a "master rag-picker" (usually a former rag-picker) who would, in turn, sell it—generally by weight—to wealthy investors with the means to convert the materials into something more profitable.[1][2]
Anatomy of a Rehabilitation Initiative
The various (state, central and city) Governments collect lot of taxes on the pretext of rehabilitating the rag-pickers. Unfortunately that amount is squandered away in the most unimaginative of the ways. A typical "Rag-pickers Rehab. Project" planned by a government and non-government agency starts this way: they rent out a huge building, furnish it with expensive furniture; appoint lots of office-bearers and conduct educational classes during fixed timings. To these rag-pickers they aim to teach state, national and international languages together with mathematics! But in reality they learn only abusive languages. Many times they fight very fierce verbal and physical abuse by their colleagues.