REHABILITATING RAGPICKERS

A sack slung over their backs, young ragpickers pick up recyclable waste from the city's streets. A sackful of waste will fetch anything between Rs.20/- and Rs.50/-. Other than meeting their parents once a week and handing over a portion of their earnings, they have very little to do with family. They soon get involved in social vices- chewing tobacco, smoking and even addiction to alcohol and drugs. Many of them, influenced by local 'goondas', take to chain snatching, pickpocketing and drug peddling.

Aged between 15 and 20 years, the ragpickers are categorised as runaway village boys, children from the slums and those of pavement dwellers. Their number has trebled in the last 10 years in the city. A survey conducted by the Non-Government Organisation (NGO) Forum shows that there are approximately one lakh ragpickers in the city.

Ploughing a lonely furrow, the pickers are considered a `nuisance' by the public, as they litter residential areas while picking up waste.

It is in this pathetic situation that about 21 NGOs in the city have come forward to rehabilitate this deprived section of society. The NGOs are now involved in creating awareness and preventing these boys from entering the profession.

The street educators at 32 different contact points identify the ragpickers. The four main entry points are the railway station and bus stands, public places, streets and paper marts. They are given vocational training and provided with Identity cards, signed by the police, for easy identification.

Once identified, basic needs such as shelter, food and clothing are met. In the second stage the youth are counselled and put to four types of rehabilitation - educational, medical, vocational and economical. Picnics, sports, drawing and other cultural activities are organised to give them a change. They are finally placed in jobs. Depending on their individual interests the youth are given training and bank loans are arranged so that they can set up their own business. It is learnt that a majority of the rehabilitated youth have a strange fascination for taking up jobs as drivers.

Besides imparting education and vocation training, the parents of these children are also trained to take up income-generation programmes. They are helped in starting small businesses, with bank loans.

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