Houston

Which is why, hardly a week ago, we launched the Commonwealth Games Campaign and asked friends and allies to join with us and sign our petition at www.commonwealthgamescampaign.org with many others and write to your local games organizing committee and the High Commissioner in your country or directly to the Queen.  Thousands of families have been displaced already.  The livelihoods of waste pickers, bicycle rickshaw pullers and many others are threatened.    We need your help!

Quickly we have gotten some support from our friends in labor, especially in Canada.  The British Columbia Government Employees Union (BCGEU) with its 60,000+ members was first to endorse a resolution of support followed by the Prince George Labour Council, and now pending in the Victoria Labour Council and the Toronto & York Labour Council.  We are appealing for help everywhere!

Here is a story that ran in Delhi passed on to me by Dharmendra Kumar, our Delhi director, which makes the case painfully well:

Gloomy face of glittering Delhi
By Gaurav Sharma
14 Jun 2010

While the government authorities are spending billions to beautify Delhi for the Commonwealth Games 2010, does any one care for the millions of poor living in pitiable conditions in the Capital’s slums?

Delhi’s poor are forced to live in such terrible conditions
(photo: Gaurav Sharma)

Just a stone’s throw away from Shadipur Metro Station in New Delhi is an elongated slum cluster Kathputli Colony. Whiff of fetid air and stench of stale urine assail your senses the moment you enter the locality. Stray pigs, heaps of garbage, clogged drains, dingy lanes and mosquitoes buzzing all around will accompany you, as you move about in the slums.

There are thousands of slum clusters in Delhi where a mammoth population is living a gruelling life with no basic amenities. Kathputli Colony is, one such slum, riddled with acute water shortage, dilapidated mud huts, abysmal health and education services, corrupt Public Distribution System and a myriad of other problems.

While Delhi has come a long way to boast of its ‘world class’ facilities, dismal infrastructure in the slums is a legacy of decades of neglect.

For a population of over 7000 and an area of 5.22 hectares, the slum has only one hand pump which breathed its last two months ago due to excessive handling forcing the inhabitants to quench their thirst from sources outside the colony. Braving the scorching sun and heat waves, women and children fetch containers filled with water all the way from a community tap installed outside the slum.

It is ironic that everyday gallons of water are showered on the lush green field of Delhi’s several Golf Courses used by ultra-rich but these slum-dwellers yearn for even a single drop of water in this hot torrid summer.

The tragedy of these poor is that in every election politicians promise them better life to get their votes. “The politicians come and go but our problems remain the same. Delhi’s Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit does nothing for poor except uttering platitude. Eight years ago she had promised that every house would have regular water tap but till date there is no water supply let alone water taps”, says Sudha who lives in parched Kathputli colony.

It is ironic that everyday gallons of water are showered on the lush green field of Delhi’s several Golf Courses used by ultra-rich but these slum-dwellers yearn for even a single drop of water in this hot torrid summer.

Children defecate in open in the slum littered with garbage
(photo: Gaurav Sharma)

But what affects the slum residents most is pathetic sanitation services. Chocked drains, children defecating in the open, mud paths strewn with faeces and litter all around make one feel sick within few minutes. To make matters worse, there is no public toilet in the slum forcing women to go outside colony to use a public toilet but that too on payment. Many share makeshift bathrooms within the colonies for bathing and washing clothes.

“Kathputli colony is a virtual hell. I wish I had a better place to live in. Dirty drains lie clogged for weeks, as nobody comes to clean them. Litter and Kathputli colony are inseparable,” rues 24-year-old Harsh.

“It is better to languish in a jail than living in this slum. Every day, I have to spend Rs. 7 for bathing and relieving in Sulabh toilets. Had there been community toilets in the colony, I would not have to spend Rs 200 per month out of a meager monthly earning of Rs 1500,” says 37-year-old widow Lajju who has five dependent children.

While Delhi has witnessed huge budget expenditure on improving civic infrastructure and beautification in the last decade, a tiny portion of that spending on providing sanitation facilities in Delhi’s slums could have spared the women embarrassment of defecating and bathing in open.

This is makeshift bathroom for women living in the slum
(photo: Gaurav Sharma)

“It is better to languish in a jail than living in this slum. Every day, I have to spend Rs. 7 for bathing and relieving in Sulabh toilets. Had there been community toilets in the colony, I would not have to spend Rs 200 per month out of a meager monthly earning of Rs 1500.”

Delhi’s comfort obsessed middle class may find it difficult to stomach but a number of these slum dwellers are forced to skip their meals due to soaring food prices and inefficient Public Distribution System (PDS). The gross irregularities and rampant corruption in PDS have taken a massive toll on the well being of these poor people.

Prabhu, one of the Pradhans (Community Heads) of this slum, says that as many as 1,500 inhabitants are without ration cards, making it impossible for them to access PDS outlets for cheaper ration. In 2007, 1550 people had applied for the renewal of ration cards which were due to expire the same year. But only 25-30 people have received their respective ration cards till now, he told d-sector.

Rummaging around his torn and tattered bag, 60-year-old Harsukhiya fishes out a receipt issued by the ration office for his new (ration) card. Recently, he discovered much to his horror, that his application for a new ration card has been cancelled.

What is worth mentioning here that many residents are facing the threat of eviction as a real estate firm Raheja Developers (owner of a prominent English weekly) has been given the contract to develop 2,800 flats for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in Kathputli colony. The catch is that the ration cards of many old residents haven’t been renewed and if they fail to produce it to the concerned authorities they will lose the right to rehabilitation and their entitlement to these flats.

60-year-old Harsukhiya is too old to work. He does not have a ration card either.
(photo: Gaurav Sharma)

“Why do these ladies who come on TV regularly only talk about the rights and plight of tribals of distant regions? Why don’t they take up our cause? They should come and spend a night in Kathputli Colony.”

Their eviction may not spring surprise as in the run-up to the Commonwealth Games (CWG), the Delhi government led by Sheila Dikshit, in its obsession to beautify the city state, has rendered many poor homeless. Independent experts estimate that nearly 3 million people are likely to be rendered homeless in Delhi by the end of CWG.

Like other basic amenities, health services are also in doldrums. No dweller wants to go to government hospitals until there is a serious illness. People say doctors and staff in government hospitals do not treat them properly. They feel it is better to have speedy, though costlier, private treatment than doing several rounds of government hospitals.

Despite such odds, the slum residents dream of a better life for their children but lack of proper education facilities disappoint them. Most children in this locality are victims of shoddy education standards of municipal schools. Either they play truant or stop going to schools. They can easily be sighted playing cards in the open.

“Who doesn’t want to go school? We can only afford government schools where teachers never pay attention to children from slums. I flunked twice in 7th standard and finally quit education. My mother could not afford my useless education,” rues teenager Mukesh, who has now started helping her mother in street-vending.

When d-sector tried to contact Mrs Vidya Devi, Municipal Councillor of the area, she was not available for a comment. Despite several attempts by this reporter to call on her official number mentioned in the MCD’s directory, she could not be reached. Every time, her husband Lala Ram received the phone and offered to answer all queries on behalf of his wife.

“You can ask me whatever questions you have. I am looking after the problems of entire area including Kathputli colony.” Lala Ram told d-sector over phone.

Certainly, empowerment of women through reservation of seats in elected bodies is still a distant dream. If husband of a municipal councillor runs the show in India’s capital, we can well imagine the conditions in far away villages.

“Sheila Dikshit is doing everything to spruce up the city for Commonwealth Games but is least concerned about the plight of poor like us. I was born and brought up in Kathputli colony. I am now father of three children. Nothing has changed from the time since I was born. The government has spent thousands of crores on this city but, this colony has not seen even a single rupee,” laments 30-year-old Lallu.

With the Commonwealth Games around the corner, New Delhi is all decked up to showcase its overhauled infrastructure, the metamorphosis of which cost billions of rupees. While sprawling stadia, serpentine flyovers, manicured gardens, and spacious parking lots have come to symbolise the galloping growth of India, government officials cannot resist the temptation to blow the trumpet of creating a “world class” city.

However, behind this new-found glitter lies a gloom which reveals the dark side of Delhi’s development. The government may have decided to erect bamboo screens to hide the slums in Delhi but the horrendous living conditions in slums cannot be glossed over.

As this reporter was about to leave Kathputli Colony, a shriveled old man asked: “Why do these ladies (social activists) who come on TV regularly only talk about the rights and plight of tribals of distant regions? Why don’t they take up our cause? They should come and spend a night in Kathputli Colony.”

Little did he know that for our celebrity activists living in a slum for a day would be much more difficult than spending a week in a jungle!

Gaurav Sharma  |  gaurav@d-sector.org

New Orleans

We talked about a way that we could do some joint work with our research team in Florida, our organizers in India, and all of the good relationships Tim felt had been made in China with Global Strategies.  Money was an issue.  Money always seems to be an issue, but Tim and his partners were undaunted and committed to their vision, and in Tim’s case, endlessly enthusiastic and optimistic about the impact of the work.

Tim was old school, and it was not old school meaning a couple of three or four decades ago.  Tim harkened back to the times more than 100 years ago when there were shop floor and rank-and-file intellectuals who lived and breathed as labor activists and self-made labor intellectuals.  Tim’s story was an old story of driving trucks in and around Boston as a Teamster.  The values didn’t change.  He talked about the times in between the projects, contracts, and grants when some of the team would paint houses and others would work as fishermen or pick up lobsters.  He talked about how hard it was getting, but there were no regrets.  This was the price of being both a working stiff and a totally committed activist to a vision of what lay ahead and needed to happen next.  There was no whine in the man.  His spirit was always infectious.

I had first gotten to really know Tim during the period when he was helping build an alliance dealing with contingent labor.  I can remember us eating rice and beans and getting to know each other better at an Enlace meeting in Torreon, Mexico.  A couple of years after that, I remember walking him towards the Zocalo in Mexico City and past the Alameda because I knew that city better than he did.  He always talked about organizing a meeting in Paris or Italy and that I would be on the list.  I would kid him when I would see him about the fact that I was still waiting for the call!

Good man.  Good times.

My biggest disappointment now is that we never really figured out a way to make more happen.   And, more happen together!

I got my internet feed from Global Labor Strategies and opened it this afternoon because it said something about Tim.  To my shock it was a memorial notice that he had died last Friday at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts of pancreatic cancer.  I can only assume it came suddenly and felled him quickly.  I know he was good health in February except for the usual aches and pains, because we discussed it explicitly.  His family must have been devastated.  I heard him talk about them all the time.  He had told many stories of working in Denmark, his wife’s country.  He doted on his youngest daughter.

The notice included a brief obit from the Boston Globe that he was a labor activist and author of many books and articles.  All true, but none of this was the full measure of the man.  No one or two inches in the back pages can capture the rare sense that this man and the kinds of things he thought, stood for, and did were at the very heart of the most traditional and best parts of the labor movement.  What was good for workers at home and internationally was part of his blood and DNA.  There simply aren’t many Tim Costello’s anymore, and there need to be hundreds and thousands of them.  His passing may not be much noticed by many and his legacy may not be as lengthy as some, but there will always be huge debts to pay to Tim Costello and the best of the tradition of labor activism and intellectuality that he represented quietly, faithfully, and truly for all of his years.

Damn, I’ll miss the guy!  There are no replacements on the bench for Tim.

New Orleans

The article takes a peek, certainly no more than that, at Prime Minster Manmohan Singh’s program to create rural employment “guarantees.”  Despite India’s huge and growing urban areas, almost half of the population still is based in rural areas in desperate poverty in many situations.

Here’s how the logic runs in trying to establish that the poor are being harmed.  A report is cited that says rural wage increases have “doubled to nearly 8 percent after 2006” when the program came into existence.  That would seem to be very good news!  Big “but” in the article though because the benefit was diluted because the price of basic commodities “rose just as fast.” The rest of the piece is too conditionalized, contradictory, and speculative to make much out of, but the basic inference, despite qualifiers, is that the program drove inflation, including some accusations that the government has stockpiled such “mammoth food reserves” that unnamed critics are saying has boosted prices by creating an “artificial shortage.”  Huh?!?

Inflation in basic foodstuffs and energy was so severe in 2006 and 2007 before the Great Recession that many countries, including India, had to step in and both release food reserves and take steps to freeze prices to prevent inflation and assure access to food and fuel for the poor.  This was a global situation, not something isolated in the Asian subcontinent!  I’m not big defender of the existing Indian government, but come on – if not for the employment guarantees the devastation to the rural poor would have been even more deadly because they would have had to absorb the price spikes without any income increases.

The message of this short piece is that good intentions are having bad results.  There’s no evidence in the article to support either the flat, judgmental conclusion of the headline or the conclusion that “good will doesn’t guarantee good results.”  The Newsweek position would presumably have been that nothing should have been done by the Indian government to help the Indian rural poor.  The article lifts up a phrase:  “the plight suggests that the rural poor need not just more jobs but better one.”  Wow!  Tell me how that is not true as well for the urban poor, for all of the poor, and in fact a universal fact everywhere for everybody, and also something that no government has mastered in creating citizen wealth yet.

How does this all happen that we get such a twisted piece flopping all over the map?  Part of it is simply subcontracting without the ability to edit well.  Turns out that Mr. Overdorf, who may be a committed and knowledgeable reporter, though this garbled piece makes it hard to know, is one of a bunch of “correspondents” or stringers for a new for profit website called GlobalPost which launched out of Boston earlier this year and is trying to get traction.  It’s business model is the ability to create a “network” of people being supported in the field for all of the news outlets that can no longer afford their own bureaus and people.  They make most content available for free and then try to up-sell special access to reporters and reports to business and others, unsuccessfully so far.

It is easier to understand that if they are trying to pitch a piece to Newsweek and others they need an angle with some edge, and that’s the way the headline rolls this piece.  The problem of subcontracted news and fewer and fewer harried editors that are trying to sort it out, is that no one along the chain has any real time or interest or resources to check the facts.

In the meantime where good intentions are really paving the road to hell is also by slapping down even this feeble $5 Billion dollar program for the rural poor at the altar of pretending this is some kind of news or commentary and undercutting the small amount of support it has as well.

And, maybe I’m wrong, too, and if it were shown to me, I’d be the first to admit I lacked the full story or the facts, but at least I want to see something really make a difference to the poor in India no matter who is making it happen, and not just sell a magazine while the devil takes the hindmost.  This is not the right direction for Newsweek.

New Orleans

A website called “Blogging Innovation,” is worth sharing in that regard to give folks a better context of what is being said and accomplished (I’ve highlighted the nice props Vyoma Kapur, the author of this piece gives to ACORN International.):

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Mumbai’s Innovation Hub

by Vyoma Kapur

Innovation in the developing world, as many people may tend to think, comes from either large conglomerates or small entrepreneurial communities which have had the good fortune of venture backing. Especially in a free market economy, such as India’s, innovation is often thought of as the mandate of thriving businesses equipped with the know-how.

In Mumbai, India’s economic powerhouse, the real social innovation is coming from the grassroots. These are people, who despite having little, are the answer to Mumbai’s mounting waste management problem.

The dwellers of the Dharavi slum, the largest in Asia, have created a massive recycling industry. Invaluable for the social impact it has created, the slum’s existence is supported by high-strung officials and ordinary civilians alike. Using simple machines in their home factories, these dwellers are recycling anything from plastic bottles and metal cans to paper and cotton, saving the city from the wrath of its own garbage. Over 80% of the plastic waste of Mumbai is recycled in the Dharavi slum.

As the consumerism of Mumbai’s upper and middle classes disposes of thousands of tons of waste material everyday, energetic young men of Dharavi sift through piles of trash to gather anything with the potential of being recycled. Different types of junk is given a new life and then sold for a bargain. With support from non-profit organizations such as ACORN International, rag-pickers are taught how to manage solid dry waste.

With an increasing number of micro-entrepreneurs entering the recycling business, this industry has seen an astonishing level of organic growth. The slum produces a jaw-dropping $1.3 billion worth of recycled output every year. There are approximately 400 recycling units, and the number is increasing every month.

Spreading across approximately 174 hectares, this slum is like any other. It lacks food and proper sanitation and is rife with squalor. For a few hours everyday, some areas of the slum are supplied water and electricity. Despite making only a fraction of the salaries earned by their counterparts in more developed areas of Mumbai, many of these dwellers are finally finding their way out of poverty through the huge demand for their services. Needless to say, environmentalists are in full praise of this green industry, a rarity in the hustling cites of India.

Having spent a few years in India, I find this commendable. I have not seen the Dharavi slum, however; I’ve seen many other slums, just like those depicted in Slumdog Millionaire. That slum dwellers could become social entrepreneurs within their own capacity to fight for survival never crossed my mind.

The Dharavi example made me wonder; do we always need a team of experts and comprehensive research data to innovate? Is it not about solving the problems in front of us and seeking ways to improve what is defined and traditional? To the Dharavi dwellers, the waste piled up around their homes was not a problem, it was an opportunity. They became rag-pickers and set up mini factories with whatever little they had. In time, they turned Dharavi from being Mumbai’s biggest headache to one of its greatest assets, setting an example for similar communities around the world.

Mumbai

ACORN India has support for  the development of three community organizations in different sections of Dharavi, largely along the drainage pipes running from the slum into the old mangrove swamps that remind any visitor that all of Mumbai is a series of islands linked by bridges in this huge city.  Most of these areas where locations where the ragpickers we have been organizing are living and working.  Regardless, for the purpose of this conversation, these people are the metaphor for the poor of the world:  they are invisible to the surveys and census counters.

Many of our people are new migrants from inside India largely and in some cases from Bangladesh, drawn to the city in search of livelihoods.  Slumlords have created shacks and shelter of sorts where they pay rents, but all of this is informal, so records which would force our folks to be seen and not just stumbled over, don’t help prove the case.  We have to win the right to be seen and heard in Mumbai.

Inside Dharavi some families have lived for decades and actually have some records of their property.  The problem is for the tenants.  There may be records on the ground floor, but the surveyors ignore and do not count the tenants living on the upper floors in one room after another.

Mumbai sees itself as a world class city of the future.  The aspirations are palpable.

The poor are going to have to force them to walk that talk or prove that this is what it seems:  another land grab based on people removal.  This fight is an old one, but it’s not over, until it’s won.

Mumbai

Wal-Mart is amazing.  You take your eye off the company for a minute, and it explodes on you.  Gross sales are now over $400 billion annually.  The company has to add $8 billion, just to grow by 2%.  But, I digress, because public relations though all of this clearly was, there were nuggets of real interest.

They concede that pure, legitimate “cash-and-carry” or full-on wholesale operations, which is their only legal entry point within the foreign direct investment (FDI) rules in India is a first for them.  Even Sam’s in the US is a hybrid of individual member/customers and business/wholesale purchasers.  In India the entire focus of their market is the birana or mom-and-pop stores that proliferate in India.

Although the company makes a big distinction about having changed from being “an American company that works overseas” to being a truly “international” or global enterprise, meaning that they are finally trying to really understand and adapt fully to local markets, a lot of this still seems the same.  The distribution centers are still central and are 150 kilometers from all of the stores, almost exactly the US model except a little closer probably given the roads and traffic conditions in India.  Not surprisingly then all 27 stores put together so far are in northern India, largely the Punjab, though I noticed 4 have slipped into the Delhi suburbs as well.  95% of the suppliers are bar coded into the famous distribution routing system that Wal-Mart has virtually patented in the US as well.

On the other hand in order to keep some items fresh, like spinach, Wal-Mart in India is taking some supplier deliveries right at the store, which is pretty unique for them, since it also involves some pretty small traders.  But, it’s smart and moves them closer to the ground.  In fact the whole operation seems closer to the ground and more focused, though that’s part of the sweetness of the spin as well, I’m sure.

Other parts of the model are consistent.  Keeping land costs cheap (and political opposition down) they are buying on the outskirts of the cities where they operate.  The physical space is spare and constructed with skylights so that they don’t even have to turn on the lights until after 6 PM at night.  Not only is that smart, but given power supply problems throughout India, it also keeps them up and running, though anything that slows the computer tracking system is heck to pay.

I got my 50 rupees worth.  I put down the magazine thinking that perhaps Wal-Mart did have a future, if they could embrace and focus within wholesale and be “value-added.”  Unfortunately when you have to grow by $8 B to add 2%, simple growth is never enough.  The number of 1000 stores slipped out in one management interview.  Hard to get that number just on “cash-and-carry.”  Hard to believe that this isn’t the honeymoon with many rocky days to come still in their Indian adventure, many of which will continue to threaten India greatly.

The very gradual backdoor opening on the “cash and carry” wholesale model (what we know in the US as a Sam’s or Costco or Price Club style) hardly merits the who-hah in the business press. The president of Wal-Mart India, Raj Jain, indicated that they might open “as many as 15 stores nationwide in the next three years…”  Admittedly that is more than the 8 that they had announced in that period last year, but as North America’s know for Wal-Mart 5 stores a year is hardly a blip on the expansion and openings chart.

As the likely postponement also makes clear, this is still a decidedly uphill journey for smiley faced minions.  Even the Journal understands that beneath the press releases there is trouble, and we can guarantee them even more:

“Mr. Singh and the more than 10 million other tiny retailers in India are Wal-Mart’s greatest challenge and greatest opportunity. If it can win them over, they are likely to become its biggest customers. Anger them and they could use their political power to block expansion.”

The fight may take on a new character, but this will continue to be a long struggle.

By the way, what kind of name is “Best Price Modern Wholesale?” Wow!  Business by committee should also be an interesting learning curve for Wal-Mart.

Meanwhile, the news is that Walmart has to postpone its opening which was scheduled for Tuesday as violence erupted in Amritsar and rest of Punjab over killing of religious leader in Vienna.

Here are two articles celebrating the invitation that ran in Mumbai in recent days.
www.mumbaimirror.com/index.aspx

Twin Success
Films on “real life slumdogs” and the Naga struggle by city documentary filmmaker Parasher Baruah to be screened in Munich and Switzerland respectively
By Lekha Menon
Posted On Thursday, May 07, 2009
he camera follows Santosh, Sameer and Salman closely as they navigate through mountains of rubbish to pick up bottles, metal or any other material that can fetch them their next meal.

They talk about their aspirations and fears even as they scavenge the swamp for more “treasures”. The trio are among the thousands of child rag pickers of Mumbai — a silent workforce living on the fringes, yet a group that makes a vital contribution to the city’s recycling industry.

The boys’ story might be of little interest to mainstream society, but now their voices will be heard on a global stage thanks to Waste, a film by documentary filmmaker Parasher Baruah, that will be screened at the 24th International Documentary Film Festival (also called DOK.FEST) in Munich, later this week. Considered one of Germany’s biggest film festivals for documentaries, Waste will be screened in the competitive Horizons section.

(Top) A still from Waste and
(Above) Parasher Baruah is thrilled with the response
to his film
But Baruah, who has shot several Assamese short films and documentaries over the last decade, is happier about the message getting across at an international level. “Society rarely recognises the efforts of rag pickers. They work without any protection in hazardous conditions, but for them waste is gold. And with the current redevelopment plan, they stand to lose their income,” he says.

Baruah embarked on the documentary last year when Acorn India Foundation, an NGO working with rag pickers of Dharavi, decided to produce a film on the subject as part of their multi-media project. He then won the Infochange Media Fellowship to make the film and soon he was out in the swamps of Deonar filming the boys at work.

However, for all the accolades his film is getting, Baruah regrets that the ‘slumdog’ effect shadows his work as well.. “That my film is based in Dharavi is a coincidence, but the western media has already dubbed it as the story of three “real life slumdogs”. That was bound to happen, I guess,” he shrugs.

Nevertheless, the filmmaker has another reason to cheer. Another film of his, When the soul of a nation dies, based on a poem written by Naga writer Easterine Iralu will be screened on May 17 at the Museum de Kulteren Basel, Switzerland, as part of their ongoing exhibition on Nagaland. An experimental poem-film that talks about the Naga struggle, Iralu’s poetry is used as soundtrack to convey the message. “I had shot this film last year on a trip to Nagaland with the help of locals who acted as crew members. A few months ago, it was screened at the Tromse International Film Festival, Norway. But the screening in Switzerland has come as a pleasant surprise,” says Baruah.

www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx

Naomi Canton, Hindustan Times
Mumbai, May 07, 2009
First Published: 02:13 IST(7/5/2009)
Last Updated: 02:16 IST(7/5/2009)
Santosh Mohite has been a ragpicker for two years.The 17-year-old who left school at the age of seven lives under a sheet on the pavement next to an open garbage dump in Mahim.
He earns Rs 100 per day wandering around illegal dumps and swamps, searching for plastic, copper, metal and bottles which he sells to recyclers.
His life and that of two other teenage ragpickers of Dharavi have been featured in a documentary Waste, which has been selected for screening at the International Documentary Film Festival in Munich.
The 37-minute film was made by Kandivli resident Parasher Baruah (32), a graduate of Pune’s Film and Television Institute of India.
He shot it over three months on a budget of Rs 50,000 after winning a fellowship from www.infochangeindia.org, an organisation that promotes social causes.
“You find ragpickers in every square yard of the city. They are often migrants, mostly pavement dwellers, with a few bundles of clothes and utensils,” Baruah said. “And yet they unknowingly contribute to the process of recycling. They don’t like the work but at the same time it pays to feed them.”
The BMC had just started developing green waste policies, but the unorganised sector had been doing it for years, he said. “At the very least they (ragpicker) would like to be given gloves and boots.”
Sitting in his makeshift tent, Mohite said, “The work is okay but when I grow up I would like to work in a company.” He said he did not think the film would make a difference to his life.
In the dump behind their home, sitting on a pile of old film reels, radio sets, wrappers and plastic, Alihaasan Khan (55) was picking out quality plastic. “I like my job,” he said.
He claimed he earned more than Rs 300 per day. Private trucks lined up outside bring trash from scrap dealers for people like him to sift through.