Dilemma of trash pickers

RAWALPINDI : Waste collectors are in large numbers across city streets. They pick up materials of resale value such as paper, glass, metal, and plastic from street corners, grocery shops, and the designated dumping sites in the city until noon. Then they get back to their houses, where the family members segregate the collected waste and then sell it to the scrap dealer.

"High inflation rate has made our lives more difficult. The chances of income from waste and scrap collection are bleak. The entire situation only made our families poorer and more vulnerable. I don't know what the next wave of inflation is going to do with us," says Gul Khan.

"Our families live in peripheral areas, all of which are on the outskirts of the city. Even during regular times, our occupation is market-dependent and brings low and erratic income. During the inflationary wave, this meagre source of income has become insufficient, leaving us in despair," adds Gul Khan.

"Inflation has made resale value material insignificant; the market is down; resulting in the reduction of prices by almost 50 per cent irrespective of the quality of the material," says Rehm Khan.

Ajab Khan says, "We are unable to commute to far-off places to collect resale value material due to limited transportation facilities. The public transport has become very expensive, and even when they had normal cost they did not allow us to travel with our load of material."

"How much scrap could we collect from nearby localities? A few with two-wheelers could still afford to go to other corners of the city in search of resale value material," adds Atal Khan, the brother of Ajab Khan.

Asfandyar and Azlan are cousins and represent the population of migrants who have shifted to Rawalpindi from northern areas and have been into waste picking for more than a decade. They say, "We earned about Rs200 per day during our initial days of rag picking, and our earnings, later on, reached Rs500 per day but the growing wave of inflation almost devalued our source of income."

Babak Khan tells of the several health-related issues they face, "In the course of our day-to-day collection activity, while handling the medical waste we are every now and then, exposed to chemicals, resulting in itching, burns, injury and in the long term, damage to internal and external organs."

"Some of my acquaintances have been affected by tuberculosis and cancer while others have fallen prey to substance abuse such as drugs, smoking, chewing tobacco, and alcoholism," adds Babak.

Samandar Khan says, "Compounding their misery is the discrimination we face because of our occupation, which speaks volumes about how the community perceives us as being inferior.

Our important role in the waste management system and cleanliness of the environment remains unrecognised."