The Women Rag Pickers of Mumbai

As the experimental condition bring up-picker sounds very low so does their job. My study includes several visits to the Govandi Dumping Ground, Mumbai, interviewing the women take to task-pickers running(a) there, visiting their slums, meeting with the neighborly workers of Street Mukti Sangathan, studying the problems faced by these women and also keeping a track of their progress. I used individual(pre tokenish) interviewing of women razz pickers, their boss (the person to whom they sold their collected yack aways), the social workers, who had attached their entire time working for them and some printed facts, as my research and analytic methodology.I interviewed 20 women rag pickers, from a diverse age theme and varied religions. The following are the main outcomes of my study. Starting with the history of the plights of the women rag pickers, these women came to Mumbai due to droughts in their villages or they were married to men residing in Mumbai. What started of as additional income for the family eventu either(prenominal)y became the only source of income because 90 % of men stop working or got into alcohol consumption or left their wives for former(a)(a) younger women.Their day started from as early as 5 am in the morning and went on until it was evening. Their breakfast and lunch were light, comprising of tea and cover or roti and onion, so as to enable them to work efficiently by out the day without feeling sleepy. Infant girls, aged 10 to 15 and older women aged 50 to 65, realize less in resemblance to the younger women, due to their higher efficiency levels to work for longer hours. They earned on daily basis and the money depended on the weight of the rag collected by them.So the day they fell ill or couldnt collect a good amount of scrap meant a day without food. Even their bosses exploited them to the core, by paying them very nominal prices for the scraps that they collected, their bosses in turn earned much more by selling it to companies who recycled these scraps. The government never played any role in their lives. The slum where they resided was rite next to the dumping yard, making it almost inconceivable for me to breath due to the abundance of flies and stinky smell.Even though majority of the citys ravage was dumped here, no precautionary measures were interpreted by the govt. to ensure that people residing near by were safe. A serve up of rag pickers and their family members were hurt due to the sudden blast that happened when two baneful circumstancesicles came into contact with each other. The scourge was just dumped as it was they were not bifurcate on the terms of harmful and unharmful particles. Around 15 people had unconnected their lives over the years, due to this ignorance of the Govt.Even the middle men who employed these rag pickers didnt care for their safety. I was horrified to see them collect waste with bare hands and with uncovered mouth. Severely wounded hands, lack of lo w-cost medical facility, unhygienic environment, acute back problems, where just the physical diligence they suffered. The mental pressure to progress, the tension of repaying the loans that they took from their bosses on high interest at the times of diseases or marriage, the feeling of being helpless and vulnerable all the time were more killing than the physical pains they suffered.The worse part that I discovered during my study was that, even their children remained uneducated and joined their mothers to entertain their families. Their lives were surrounded by such dark shadows that even a diversify of better future seemed unimaginable. It was in these dark times that Stree Mukti Sangathan came to their rescue. They formed a group of women rag pickers and helped them open a bank account, convincing them to salve a small amount of their earnings every month to stay off taking high interest loans at difficult times.By organizing them into a group, the Sangathan saw to it tha t these women were no longer exploited and worked under much safer conditions. The social workers opened primary schools for the children of the rag pickers and also provided them with proper medical facilities at affordable rates. The rag pickers in conclusion marched towards their independence from the vicious dominance of its exploiters. formerly the Sangathan had a comely number of rag picker women members, it then happy them and their children to paint, make hand bags, stitch fancy kurtis, crafting, wall hangings, etc. he ones with higher potential to learn and adapt were taught to produce bio gas from waste materials and they instantly work at work stations where machines are operated on bio-gas. After investing 2 decades for the upliftment of these women rag pickers, Sangathans effort finally showed drastically positive result in the form of some of women rag pickers now working as social workers in the Sangathan and helping the other women rag pickers to earn a better l iving, some have acquired schoolmaster education and now work as nurses, teachers, etc.Although the situation hasnt changed for all the women rag pickers in Mumbai and vulnerability and sufferings still prevails in their lives it was even-tempered a relief to learn that a number of women rag pickers whom I interviewed were now proud mothers of engineer sons, owned houses and were spending a decent living. The once very vulnerable and invisible group of my society now has a solid foundation.They conduct annual exhibitions of their hand made products all over India. It wasnt surprising to learn that the women behind this Sangathan and social regeneration of these rag pickers, Ms. Jyoti Mhapsekar was the first Indian Women who won an award at the Clinton international Initiatives for her committed work towards women and environment. This hold was chosen as the best project of that year in my college.