As
a street child, between five and eighteen
years of age, these children earn
their livelihood by polishing shoes,
washing cars, finding parking spaces,
rag picking (recycling garbage), selling
lottery tickets and news papers, etc.
They also work as coolies and helpers
in automobile repair shops, construction
sites, and hotels. Their average earnings
vary between 15 Rupees to 20 per day,
while the more experienced ones earn
25 to 40 Rupees. However, these are
the lucky ones. The Girls are forced
into prostitution at an early age.
Arising at dawn,
the rag picker children start their
rounds. With feet bare and backs
aching, they carry the heavy gunny
bags that contain the day's pickings.
Sometimes on foot they travel over
20 kilometers each day for the best
pickings. Their clothing is filthy,
tattered, ill fitting, and wholly
inadequate for protection especially,
when the weather is wet and cold.
Life is very
hard as they rummage (competing
and fighting with stray dogs and
cattle) through every filthy garbage
heap in the city and railway stations.
All recyclable garbage is collected
and sorted: paper, plastic, bottles,
bones, metals and rotting discarded
food thrown out by households and
railway passengers. With this they
fill their bags and often their
starving bellies. If the day's collection
is bad, they resort to stealing
for survival. If good, they rush
to the nearest wayside shop to ease
their hunger.
All have regular
scrap dealers to buy their loot.
They receive a meager pittance,
and sometimes this pittance is withheld
to repay a previous enforced loan.
Some days they starve. If a better
price is negotiated by another dealer,
the child is frequently beaten and
tied up.
However the issue
of greater concern is related to
their pattern of spending, where
a major part of their income is
spent on drugs, alcohol, solvent
abuse (sniffing solvents), and gambling.
They frequently become involved
in street fights. With little money
and too much freedom, they are vulnerable
and fall prey to any number of situations
that threaten life and soul.
Late in the afternoon
they resume their second round of
collection. Then after sorting and
selling their loot, they spend their
nights on the streets or in graveyards,
where they are exploited and abused.
Older rag pickers and perverted
people give them drugs or threaten
them for sexual purposes, thus exposing
them to A.I.D.S, and many more sexual
and life threatening diseases.
A rag picker
is not a beggar. He works hard and
considers rag picking a profession
of choice. It enables him to earn
money, daily, and offers him ample
amounts of free time. They are very
loyal and protective of each other,
sharing food and money. The rag
picker is proud and feels that he
is master of his own life.
