Marianist says Indian city's garbage plan threatens ragpickers

Published: 2004-01-19

BANGALORE, India (CNS) -- Inside the heaps of waste and garbage churned out daily in Bangalore, India, lie scraps of paper, rags, glass and metal -- materials precious enough to motivate thousands of people to become ragpickers. Men and women, some as old as 70, and children as young as 6 survive by scavenging the city's estimated 2,000 tons of garbage a day. What they collect and separate they sell to local shops, making, on a good day, almost 100 rupees, or a little over two dollars. But that livelihood may be in danger, said Marianist Brother Joseph Darwin, executive director of Ragpickers' Education and Development Scheme, or REDS. Brother Darwin said city officials are developing a waste collection program that aims to eliminate municipal garbage containers within two or three years in an attempt to make Bangalore cleaner. To replace the street dumpsters, the city will hire people for door-to-door garbage collection, and that, Brother Darwin said, will be deal a major blow to the city's ragpickers.

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