More than 95 percent of New Delhi has no formal system of house-to-house garbage collection, so it falls to the city’s ragpickers, one of India’s poorest and most marginalized groups, to provide this basic service for fellow citizens. They are not paid by the state for their work, relying instead on donations from the communities they serve, and on meager profits from the sale of discarded items.
But after centuries of submissive silence, the waste collectors are beginning to demand respect.
On Oct. 2, the birthday of Mohandas Gandhi, the Delhi state government made a small but significant concession. In response to pressure from a ragpickers’ union, it will supply about 6,000 of them with protective gloves, boots and aprons. Meanwhile, they pick through refuse – shards of glass smeared with the remains of yesterday’s dinner, broken shoes mixed in with rotting meat – with bare hands. The government says its gesture will go some way toward granting the waste collectors a modicum of dignity.
The waste collectors are underwhelmed by the move. They do not want gloves, they say. They want wages, social security, pensions, health care, uniforms they hope will discourage police harassment, education for their children and decent housing.
Castes continue – as much a part of the economy as the culture.
