Waste lying in dump yard crying for help..
The day was the same like any other day. I was taking my breakfast and looking for a cab on my phone at the same time. As the waiting time was long, I decided to walk down the street to reach the crossing where I could a hire a metered cab instead. As I crossed the street, the first thing that caught my sight was a bare-bodied rag-picker trying to segregate some stuff from a pile of waste. The pile was quite huge and it looked like a complete mix of all sorts of household wastes that get discarded on a daily basis.
Next day, I went passed the same street and I found him in his own selfless state. It appeared to be his daily routine. It seemed ironical that the waste dumped by the educated households of the society was segregated by a a few uneducated rag pickers on a daily basis. Not just that, what seemed worse was that the rag pickers had to handpick the recyclables from other infectious wastes without any means of safety. The thing that crossed my mind was that his work could be so easier if only he knew which waste he should get his hands into. This thought stayed with me for the whole day.
The next few weeks went in searching for a lot of information and facts about the Waste culture in India and other countries. During this time I also followed a lot of rag pickers in my area to understand their condition and the work they do. What came out was that they keep working all day in areas devoid of all life, looking for a handful of recyclables out of the waste dumped by the common households. A basic habit of proper segregation of waste could make their work so easy and life so better.
The sad part was that this was not the only street which was in such a pity condition. Every other street had the same story and the wastes lying there seemed unnoticed. The dump of waste appeared to be crying for help and it wasn't that the local authorities were all to blame for this sorry state. Just a slight change in our daily habits could have brought about a major change in the pathetic condition of our localities!