Delhi's Waste-Picker Families Transport 4500 Tonnes Of Rubbish
By Shams Ul Haq Qari @shamsqari
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Spread over 32 acres, the Okhla Landfill site in South Delhi has reached about 50 metres in height - 30 metres over the permissible height of 20 metres.
Ajay, 22, has been working on the Okhla Landfill for more than 10 years said: “I earn very low here but it's good that I am earning something. I have been coming here almost everyday for past 10 years but everyday I earn enough to feed my family.
“Most of us come here to collect metal, mostly iron. It is something we always manage to find using magnets and digging deep into the waste.”
Of the 20 sanitary landfill sites developed since 1975 in India’s capital, 15 have been closed and work has been suspended at two. At present, Delhi has four landfill sites and Okhla Landfill site is the largest of them.
Having reached its capacity, the Okhla sanitary landfill site is under tremendous pressure. Since, no alternative is available, nearly 2,700 tonnes of garbage is still dumped every day here.
Shiva, 26, who lives with his friends near the site said: “Trucks come here everyday to drop the garbage. Work never stops here, only our health gets worst day by day.
“We have been left to no one. By working here we help in cleaning this city but anyone hardly thinks about us. We are dying here each day”
Being one of the largest, Delhi’s waste-picking community actually has a high proportion of children below 14 doing this work as well.
Although, the child labour is outlawed in India, dozens of children, some as young as five, can be seen working alongside adults or with other children on these landfill sites.
Urmila, 40, who collects metal with her daughter said: “My daughter comes here with me everyday because I cannot leave her alone at home. I don’t know how to prevent her from getting infected here. As she has nothing else to do, she also has started collecting bits of metal for me.
“Everytime a truck passes by, the place gets filled with dust. Also, the smell of garbage is harmful for us. Making our children work here is like comitting a sin but we don’t have any other option.”
The rising temperature causes fire on landfill sites around the city. The contuinuous fire has been a cause for ill-health of the people living in and around the waste disposal sites.