Little Green Warriors

Imagine waking up really early, when the sun is just starting to peek through. Imagine putting on a pair of your most ragged, worn-out clothes, picking up your work-gear – a large, equally tattered bag, maybe. And then, trudging out to begin another day, not for school, but for doing what you do every day of the week: pick up waste.

Thousands of children in our country do this every day. You can see them scurrying along streets and footpaths with their oversized bags slung on their thin shoulders, rummaging through garbage dumps. They are the unsung ‘green warriors’ of our times – waste pickers who help keep our cities and towns clean.

Who are these child waste pickers?

Child waste pickers are young boys and girls, coming almost entirely from poor families, who collect, sort, and segregate waste materials from our streets, community bins, dumps, and landfills. What they collect and pick up are items like things made of plastic (like bottles), metal, paper, etc. that can be sold or reused.

Although it is difficult to determine the exact numbers of child waste pickers, it is estimated that there are millions in India alone. Many more of them live and work in the other less developed and developing countries of the world.

How do they work?

Child waste pickers are involved in this work not by choice, but because they come from desperately poor, marginalised sections of our society. Many of them might be orphans or might have been abandoned by their families. Poor families in cities, struggling to make ends meet, put their children to work. The waste these children pick up and resell provides them a small additional income.

Child waste pickers are vulnerable, given their lack of awareness regarding occupational and environmental hazards. (Photo credits: Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi) 

But who buys waste from them?

Child waste pickers are a part of the informal sector of waste management. See its pyramid below to understand where does waste go and who buys it.

Waste pickers and Itinerant waste buyers: Waste pickers, including child waste pickers, primarily collect waste from roadside dustbins, landfills, and dumpsites. They also collect waste from households daily and may or may not have the means of transporting it.

Itinerant waste buyers undertake doorstep collection at homes but only once in a while. They usually own a bicycle and purchase large quantities of newspapers, plastic, glass, carton, metal, and other high-value recyclable items.

These waste pickers and itinerant waste buyers incur zero or minimal input cost and sell their waste to small scrap dealers or kabadiwalas, who almost always exploit them. The scrap dealers typically under-weigh their waste materials, undercount their due money inaccurately, manipulate prices, or resort to other unfair means. Hence, as these waste pickers and itinerant waste buyers are exploited at every turn, they usually do not have the wherewithal to do any recycling. Thus, they majorly contribute to waste collection.

Small scrap dealers: These people—the kabadiwalas—run small junk shops that have some storage space to collect waste. They purchase this waste from the waste pickers and itinerant waste buyers. Thereafter, they undertake negligible or minimal waste processing, like sorting large quantities of waste items.

Big scrap dealers: These folks are waste aggregators. They collect waste in bulk and store it in large spaces, many times bigger than those of the small scrap dealers. They get this waste directly from small scrap dealers and other commercial sources. This waste is also of the same material type; thus, big scrap dealers specialize in waste collection. This specialization and bulk collection makes it possible for them to recycle waste. In some cases, they recycle it to produce secondary raw materials. Nonetheless, they supply their waste according to market demand.

Waste processors: These are the final stakeholders in the pyramid of informal waste recycling system. They buy specific quality of scrap material and convert it into secondary raw material for the manufacturing industry. They collect this waste from the big and small scrap dealers.

Is the waste picker’s work important?

Very much so! Their work contributes to environmental sustainability. Recycling and waste picking play a vital role in reducing the amount of waste that ends up in landfills and in mitigating pollution.

But it is also true that thousands of children working as waste pickers are being denied education and a decent lifestyle and must be pulled up and out of this miserable existence.

What are their challenges?

-- Severe physical hardships are normal, such as carrying heavy bags of waste, exposing themselves to hazardous materials such as chemicals, toxins, broken glass, etc. and working in harsh weather conditions.

-- Child waste pickers are at risk of contracting diseases and infections due to exposure to unsanitary conditions and harmful waste materials, and due to their abominable working conditions. They have no access to protective equipment such as gloves or gumboots. Due to the poor living and working conditions, malnutrition, anaemia and tuberculosis are common among them.

-- Most child waste pickers have no access to education and, hence, to a better future. Some NGOs are working to change this by setting up schools within or near waste picker communities.

-- Child waste pickers often face social discrimination and isolation, as people look down upon their work. Their living quarters are frequently located close to dumpsites, and they work under unhygienic and unhealthy conditions. Often, they have no access to drinking water or public toilets.

-- Child waste pickers also experience psychological stress due to the harsh working conditions, social stigma, and the feeling that their work is often considered degrading. This stress can lead to long-term mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression.

-- Nutritious food is extremely important for growing children; this is usually denied to child waste pickers. Malnutrition can lead to stunted growth, weakened immune systems, and various long-term health problems.

Read here the report on Integration of Informal Sector in Solid Waste Management.

Did you know?

As per the provisions in the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 and the National Policy on Child Labour, there is a restriction on employment of children in any hazardous or dangerous occupation. Waste picking has been included in the Schedule of Hazardous Occupations, 2001. However, children continue to be employed in this sector. As per a study, around 20 per cent of the 51,000 street children in Delhi are waste pickers.

How can we help?

Educate: Advocate for their right to education. Support initiatives that provide access to schooling and vocational training.

Make others aware: Reduce the social stigma and promote understanding and empathy about the issue.

Integrate: Support ccommunity-based projects that provide safe working conditions, along with access to health and education facilities for these children. Focus on ensuring clean water, sanitation, healthcare services, and protective equipment. Also, support efforts to develop sustainable models that integrate adult waste pickers into the city's solid waste action plan.

Remember, many young waste pickers might have dreams and aspirations like any of you. Dreams of getting educated, of becoming a doctor or a scientist. It is partly because of their efforts that we are not drowning in the waste that we generate every day. Shouldn’t we give them something in return, such as an opportunity for a better life?

A women waste collector from the SWaCH Cooperative, Pune. These collectors undertake doorstep collection and spread awareness on waste segregation. (Photo credits: Amit Thavaraj and SWaCH)

Did you know?

SWaCH Pune is India’s first wholly-owned cooperative of over 4,000 waste collectors and other urban poor. Working in collaboration with the city administration, SWaCH collects and recycles waste from over nine lakh households and businesses and promotes source segregation of waste. Its mem-bers get user fee from people and also earn by selling recyclable scraps. What puts SWaCH apart is its clear stand against child la-bour, particularly in waste picking. Its campaigns have resulted in a decrease in the number of child waste pickers in the city! With mothers having taken up the task of door-to-door waste collection, their children are now free to go to school.