Price for progress.

After a bad day at work, Manorama Begum can hardly keep herself from 


vomiting. After a good day, she is merely disinclined to eat for a few hours, 


until the stench has receded from her nostrils and her fingernails are scrubbed 


cleanAs Begum began to root through refuse, searching for bottles, old light 


bulbs, and anything else that might be recyclable, someone punched the 65-


year-old in the back of the head. She collapsed. Her attacker continued to 


punch and kick her..Again eighteen-year-old Naina, a rag-picker collects waste 


for a living. 


The show begins at night. After the sun is swallowed by the smog and neon 


lights wash the city in yellow, Rahul and his gang emerge from under the 


flyover. They all look similar - grubby feet, frayed rags, scarred faces, red eyes 


and brassy hair. They are all under 11. Walking with the swagger of his 


favourite filmstar, the puny urchin produces a cigarette from his pocket, lights 


it and blows the smoke into the faces of six other kids who beg for a drag. But 


Rahul is high: one moment he is Dabangg; another, he is Romeo the kutta. 


Then he offers the fag to his buddies, but at a price. He punches one, yanks 


out Rs 5 from another's pocket, and then grabs Guddi, the only girl in the pack. 


She screams and giggles as he pulls her towards a dark corner. Then a boy 


shouts police' and the group vanishes into the dark garbage dump they call 


home.

There are some 300 families in the area who do the same to make ends meet, 


wearing T-shirts with the line "Your waste is our business," .Looking after 


rubbish, anywhere in the world, is not dignifiedThe very fact that we should 


acknowledge that we need to look after their health is a tremendous 


acknowledgement of their dignity.There are the hard-up families, who save 


their own plastic milk cartons to sell to passing dealers for a few extra rupees 


to supplement the household budget.

In Mumbai, garbage dumping grounds are taking their toll on residents who 

live close by. A survey conducted by the NGO Nirmaya Health Foundation has

 found that close to 70 per cent of nearly 1,400 children, near the dumping 

ground, suffer from respiratory tract infection and chronic skin diseases. A 

majority of those affected, 882 rag- pickers, are directly exposed to the toxic 

waste.a beautiful place, but because of dumping, has become dirty and 

unhygienic. The persistent bad odour has led to various health problems such 

as suffocation. The system here is informal yet highly organized. Its capacity 

to recycle plastics and paper is efficient beyond the dreams of even 

progressive, recycling nations in the West.

Many here say that while the current waste disposal system might provide the 


1050,000-some ragpickers with a meagre livelihood.If these ragpickers are 


squeezed out, we'll see them cutting back on what they eat, they'll stop 


feeding their children milk, and we'll see more women entering the sex trade. 


Is this progress?