September was the peak of monsoons in India. It rained incessantly. Women from the waste picker community in a slum in North Delhi’s Wazira...
September was the peak of monsoons in India. It rained incessantly. Women from the waste picker community in a slum in North Delhi’s Wazirabad were been in a fix. Their homes, which are also their workspaces, were inundated with water.
Their husbands and many of the women themselves collect, sort and segregate waste. They are also involved in recycling and reselling it.
The rents here are high. One of the women said that her family pays a monthly rent of Rs 12,000 – about what a one-bedroom flat would cost to rent in some parts of Delhi – for a space to segregate and store waste and to live in. The lack of electricity and water is an eternal problem.
There are the obvious health hazards that come with living with waste. Research has shown that people who live and work around dump sites and landfills have a higher rate of low-weight babies, neonatal deaths and congenital anomalies.
Besides, the solid wastes that contain chemicals and contaminants that pollute the ground and surface water that cause eye and skin irritation. Studies in states such as Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Punjab among others have shown that toxins in the waste give rise to a host of diseases...
