Ragpickers: Recycling and School Essay

A.What is rag take?Indias booming urbanization brings the problem of risky man hop onment. As more concourse argon migrating towards the cities, the amount of godforsaken is increasing at a gamy pace and elope man erament is likely to be grapple a unfavourable issue in the coming socio- scotch manakins. Ragpickers play an important, save usually unestablished role in the pine management system of Indian cities. They uplift garbage in search of recyclable items that give the gate be interchange to tear apart merchant (paper, p farthermostic, tin) This activity demand no skills and is a source of income for a emergence number of urban poors. There atomic number 18 two types of scrap-collectors the ragpickers, or soly women, who collect garbage on dumping builds, in residential beas or in street bins, and the itinerant buyers who purchase scrap directly from stomachholds, darkices and shops. rough of the itinerant buyers atomic number 18 male and they typicall y require a certain amount of capital to purchase scrap. The informal waste sectorMost of the ragpickers atomic number 18 non independent but deed for middlemen or asserters who purchase segregated rag from them on pre-decided rates. extravagance pick is rargonly recognized or integrated in the official Waste Management System patronage its large contribution to it. According to the nongovernmental organization Chintan, ragpickers are unrecognized and have almost no rights to throw, despite the incident that they save almost 14% of the municipal budget annually. In Delhi, the soldiery of almost 80,000 estimated wastepickers save the metropolis at least Rs. 6 lakh daily through their hunt.B.Who are the ragpickers?In India, over a meg people find alertlihood opportunities through waste picking. Chintans interrogation shows that as some as one in a degree Celsius persons in a large city in India could be utilize in waste recycling, starting from waste picking to operat ing smallish junk shops and still operating reprocessing factories. Of these, most are marginalized wastepickers and small waste dealers. Ragpickers are mostly women who come from the most marginalised groups of the population and often live in unauthorised slums in the poorest neighbourhood.Studies similarly show that ragpickers are most of the time migratorys who had fled their city or village because of hard living conditions. The Brobdingnagian studyity of the ragpickers are Dalits or belong to minorities (muslims in Kolkatta). In UP, Assamese and the Biharis have by and large dominated the profession in the last two decades. The fact that they are migrants and often seen as temporary residents tin can explain why few governments have designed policies to improve their status. Most of them dont have identity cards or consume certificate and thereof dont have access to fundamental governmental facilities (social assistance, enrolment of their tiddlerren in municipal give instructions)C.Some improvements in their endure conditions galore(postnominal) NGOs are supporting(a) the ragpickers to gain access to these basic services ( strongness care, health insurance, pedagogics and vocational training). They also digest legal support or centering sessions and jock them form unions to speak up for their rights. In some cities, their graze has been partly recognized and their situation thus improved. In Pune for example, convey to the scrap-collectors union, the municipal corporation promptly issues identity cards to ragpickers and offers a moderate health insurance plan, recognising their contribution to recycling waste in the city This acknowledgement can have a positive impact on reducing barbarian labour by increasing the parents income therefore reducing their dependence on the money their children earn.II.Child labour and ragpickingA.Back set up of the child ragpickersM some(prenominal) children begin functional as ragpickers at the young age of five or six historic period. In Lucknow, the majority of the ragpickers are betwixt 8 and 10 years old. Most of them never attend condition and dont have whatsoever formal education. Their families are loosely in need of extra incomes from their children. There are two categories of child ragpickers the street pickers, who collect garbage in street bins or residential knowledge domains, and dump pickers who work on dumping grounds.These two categories of children do not have the same living conditions and characteristics. Street pickers, mostly boys, share many characteristics with opposite street children they are extremely mobile and its therefore difficult to gain access to them. What they usually need is a protective covering or reintegration with their families. In most cases, the children work for a middleman who takes the major share of the sales and pays however a small amount to the children. On the other hand, the dump pickers often live with their fa milies, in a relatively more stable environment.They usually work with their parents in or near the dumping ground. Girls were traditionally more tough in ragpicking than boys, but a survey in Pune shows that the trends are changing and that more boys are now engaged in the trade. Adolescent girls are less involved in ragpicking because it is believed to be unsafe for them to be out on the street. They are involved in taking care of the house chores and help in sieve the collected garbage from home. Some of the child ragpickers go to schooling and work the other part of the daylight or during holidays. Some girls are erect working as ragpickers in the morning, sometimes attending school in the afternoon and coming back home in the evening to help their mother with the household chores or to care for their young siblings.B.State of the legislationIn 2001, waste-picking was included among the hazardous occupations banned nether the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986. exclusively apart from this very brief mention, ragpicking is ignored in legislation regarding child labour. Contrary to most child labourers, ragpickers are self-employed or working with their parents and therefore not answerable to any employer.III. Impact of ragpicking on the flavour of childrenA.Health issues1.Long working hoursNormally children work in one shift only but some of the children are stash away rag two to terce times in a day. Those who are involved in show of empty bottles work late in the night. In Lucknow, younger children, curiously girls, start their work primeval in the morning and till 12-1pm. teenaged age boys start working around 8-9 am till 2-3 pm. nerve Study Lucknow Fazila, 11 years old, has 3 brothers. Her father died some year back and her mother is weak and gets sick very often. She and her 12-year-old brother are the two most responsible person of the family. Fazilas day begins early morning, she cooks rice, prepare tea and goes with his brother to Dalibagh, Hazratganj and Lalbagh for rag picking.She returns home when sun is laid-back in the sky. After taking bath and meal she looks after her younger brother. Around 3 pm she starts second round of rag picking and comes back around 7 PM. She cooks the evening meal and does other house hold work. She dreams to become teacher but hardly find any time to go to school. She wants to play with the doll, which she found during her daily rag collection. She is growing up and has lots of questions but no one to answer them. She dreams of collecting lots of money and expiration back to Assam and think of the days when no one forced her for rag picking and she would play with dolls and friends.2.Hazardous work conditionsRagpicking is probably one of the most dangerous and dehumanizing activity in India. Child ragpickers are working in filthy environments, surrounded by crows or dogs at a lower flummox any weather conditions and have to search through hazardous waste w ithout gloves or shoes. They often eat the filthy food remnants they find in the garbage bins or in the dumping ground. Using the dumping ground as a playing field the children run the risk to come upon needles, syringes, used condoms, saline bottles, soiled gloves and other hospital wastes as well as ample of plastic and iron items. They suffer from many diseases, such as respiratory problems, worms, anaemia, fever and other problems which include cuts, rashes, dog bitesB.Education issuesA large majority of the child ragpickers are out of school children, despite the presence of schools in their neighbourhood.But rag picking and 12 to 13 hours In Lucknow for example, 98% children of the school going of working is reality and she has to age group are not going to school. work hard for supporting her family. In the M-East ward of Mumbai, there are 15 municipal schools but the number of out of school children is yet very high. Most of the children are withdrawn from school at the ave rage age of 12-13 years. The boys often work in their parents production line duration the girls are made to take up the household responsibility.Different reason can explain why the children are not going to school. The following table gives details about the situation in Lucknow 79% children are out of school because neither their parents nor the contractor for whom they are working are interested in sending them to school. Moreover, many children are already making quite a lot of money by ragpicking and dont see the localise of going to school. 12% learn that they are responsible for their family and have to work. 5% children left school because they do not found anything interesting in the school and they feel that teachers are not teaching properly and they cannot afford private school fees. 4% of the children are not going to school because their school hours didnt take them to go to work.Language is also a big barrier, as migrant children often dont speak the language of the city they work in. In a study conducted in Pune, migration, quality of school, corporal penalty in school, not interesting, failed more than twice in the class, bad health, economic hardship of the family, loss of a parent are some of the reasons also cited for school doze offouts.IV.Prathams interpellation the case of Govandi (Mumbai)A.Situation in GovandiAccording to the SSA look into Data 2004, 60% of working and out of school children are in the M/E ward of Mumbai city. The M/E ward is divide broadly into two main slum communities Bainganwadi and Shivaji nagar. These are like any other slum communities. There is a gathering of closely make homes, unmaintained roads, overflowing drains, freely roaming cattle and groups of people chatting at each corner. The cheeseparing population in these communities is around 5 lakhs and majority of the population are followers of Islam. Another main characteristic of this community (though negative) is its closeness to Mumbais lar gest dumping ground The Deonar Dumping Ground.Mumbai causes waste of approximately 7,025 tonnes per day. The management of waste in the city comes under the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM). The habitual approach is that of collection of garbage from the communities by the municipal authorities and disposing it off at the three main dumping sites that are currently serving the city. Deonar is the largest dumping ground in Mumbai. It starts from the Deonar creek and ends at Baba Nagar.This dumping ground area has added on to the developmental and infrastructural issues faced in M/E. For years Deonar has been the largest garbage bin for the entire Mumbai city and today is also is a home for thousands of migrants who live in very hard conditions, lacking even the most basic amenities and earning their living on the dumping ground. In July 2008, Pratham conducted a survey in and around the dumping ground to valuate the situation of the children living there.There are approximately 1300 children living in and around the dumping ground today on a tied(p) basis. All of them are living with their families and have either migrated or been displaced from other parts of Mumbai. 636 are working as ragpickers, of which half are going to school. The majority of the children earn up to vitamin C rupees a day while 2 or 3 of them are making as oftentimes as 800 rupees a day. (476 earn 100 or less than 100 rupees a day, 111 earn between 100 and 400 rupees a day and 5 earn 400 rupees or more) The intent of Prathams intervention is to provide educational opportunities to child ragpickers, as well as accompaniment from their routine work in a safe, caring environment and to generate their interest in school-related activities.B.Educational classesThere have been joint initiatives with the Government so as to tackle the issue of child rag pickers. One of the major programs through which these children are covered is the Transitional Education Centres (TECs) run under the INDUS program of the Government. There are 11 TECs touch the dumping ground in Govandi scope about 450 children, many of which work part time as rag pickers.C.Vocational skill trainingThe objective of the vocational training is to provide vulnerable children with employable or business skills and allow them to be able to survive / support themselves and their families after reaching an employable age. Pratham offers vocational training or refer children to other organizations that provide training. Two vocational skill training classes are organized for boyish girls and provide them with basic life skills such as mehendi or tailoring.D.Mainstreaming these children into schoolIn December 2006 Hindustan Lever Limited adopted 45 children from Govandi area under their Scholarship drive to support the education of underprivileged children. downstairs this project the company is sponsoring their school education as well as a support class run by Pratham. Prathams teache rs relentlessly worked to convince the parents to send their children to school and to Prathams support classes. They organized parents meetings, counselling sessions and home visits to tell them about the importance of education.Many parents argued that sending their children to school was a loss of revenue but the teachers gave them advice on how to manage without their childrens additional revenue. Slowly the parents began taking an interest in their childrens education and supporting Prathams initiative. Pratham started with a four-hour class aimed at raising the childrens interest for educational activities. Once the children and the parents were ready, they contacted the school and managed to enrol the children. The support class was set up to provide the child with educational support for retention in school.E.The flake out-in-centre modelAlongside its education program, Pratham also started the first drop in centre for the children working on the dumping ground. The Drop i n centre is the major strategy and a non controversial entry point program to tackle the issue of working children on the dumping ground. It is a low cost and replicable model which caters to the immediate needs of the working children on the dumping ground. This safe point of contact for children is key to their reintegration into education and vocational training, and a first step toward a better future.1.What is a Drop In CentreA place within the radius of 1 km of the workplace wherein the children working on the dumping ground (who do not have a fixed routine or schedule) can drop in between 10.00 am and 5.00 pm. It would be a place which would cater to the childs recreational needs and the need