Photo Essay: The Story Of A Rag Picker

Young waste pickers look for recyclable items at a landfill as the sun sets on the

outskirts of New Delhi. Rag picking is effectively the primary recycling system in

India.

While the rag pickers offer invaluable services to the city, they have few rights and

are exposed to deadly poisons everyday.

Six months ago, Marjina stepped off a train in New Delhi with her two

children, hoping to find a better life after her husband abandoned them

without so much as a goodbye.

She thought leaving her home in West Bengal to find work in the

Indian capital would give her children a chance at a better life.

But the only job she could find was as a “rag picker” — picking through

other people’s garbage to find salvageable bits to resell or recycle.

Marjina leaves for the train station after saying goodbye to her

neighbors outside her rented shanty on the outskirts of New

Delhi.

Once Marjina stepped off a train in New Delhi with her two children,

hoping to find a better life after her husband abandoned them without

so much as a goodbye.

The family spent their days at a landfill picking through other

people’s garbage to find salvageable bits to resell or recycle.

After six months of poverty, illness and shame, they returned to that train station in New Delhi, headed back to an uncertain future to their

hometown in West Bengal.

It is filthy, dangerous work, performed by millions of people

across India.

Rag picking is effectively the primary recycling system in India.

But the work is by no means environmentally friendly, and very

far from being secure.

While the rag pickers offer invaluable services to the city, they

have few rights.

Every day, they are exposed to deadly poisons.

Marjina, who goes by only one name, and her children —

daughter Murshida, 12, and 7-year-old son Shahid-ul — spent

their days at a landfill in Gazipur, on the outskirts of New Delhi.

The next morning they would sit outside their single-room shanty and sort the trash into metal, plastic and

paper. The children counted themselves lucky if they found a discarded toy or plastic

jewelry to play with. The family earned just $26 per month. Rent was

$9.

The work took a toll on the family’s health. Marjina’s children were

constantly sick.

Her daughter contracted dengue fever and had to be hospitalized.

Marjina, right, and her 12-year old daughter Murshida, walk down from a landfill after working the

entire day here

Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently launched a “Clean India” campaign where he asked people to help keep their surroundings tidy. But there were no benefits

announced for people like Marjina.

After months of poverty, illness and shame, Marjina and her children

returned to that train station in New Delhi on Nov.

18, headed back to an uncertain future in West Bengal.

“I do not want my children to die in this trash,” she said.

Daily wage labor back home would earn Marjina barely enough to survive. Her children, who did not go to school

in New Delhi, likely won’t in West Bengal, either, though all Indian

children have a right to free education.

Whatever awaits the family, Marjina said, it could not be worse

than life as a rag picker in New Delhi.

Young waste pickers look for recyclable items at a landfill. Rag picking is effectively the primary

recycling system in India. 

While the rag pickers offer invaluable services to the city, they have few rights and are exposed to

deadly poisons everyday.

Marjina, right, segregates trash with the help of her children and a

young neighbor outside their rented shanty.

Murshida, 12, right, looks at her brother Shahid-ul, 7, lying ill on a bed inside their rented shanty.

The children live with their mother, a rag picker, and spend their day at

a landfill picking through other people’s garbage to find

salvageable bits to resell or recycle.

They arrived in New Delhi, hoping to find a better life after their

father abandoned them without so much as a goodbye.

A worker loads segregated trash for recycling on a truck.

Rag picking is effectively the primary recycling system in India.

While the rag pickers offer invaluable services to the city, they have few rights and are exposed to

deadly poisons everyday.

Murshida, 12, helps her mother Marjina lift a sackful of trash for segregation outside their rented

shanty.

Marjina and her 12-year old daughter Murshida wait for a trash

dealer to weigh their segregated trash.

Shahid-ul, 7, right, sits on a sack of trash as his mother Marjina, center, speaks to a neighbor outside their rented shanty.

Murshida, 12, sits on the lap of her mother Marjina as the train leaves for their village in West Bengal, at

a railway station New Delhi.

Marjina, right, her daughter Murshida, 12, and seven-year old brother Shahid-ul make their way

towards a train station.

A neighbor teasingly gives a withered bouquet of flowers,

found in a bag of trash, to Marjina outside their rented shanty.

Shahid-ul, 7, sits on a sack of trash outside a shanty where he lives

with his mother Marjina and sister Murshida, 12.

The family spends their day at a landfill picking through other

people’s garbage to find salvageable bits to resell or

recycle.

They arrived in New Delhi, hoping to find a better life after their

father abandoned them without so much as a goodbye.

Munna bhai, a trash dealer, hands over money to Marjina for trash she segregated, as her daughter

Murshida eats sweet lemon on the outskirts of New Delhi, India.

Marjina arrived in New Delhi with her two children, hoping to find a

better life after her husband abandoned them without so much

as a goodbye.

The family spends their day at a landfill picking through other

people’s garbage to find salvageable bits to resell or

recycle, earning $26 a month.

Murshida, 12, daughter of rag picker Marjina, lies on a sack of

trash after she fell ill, outside their rented shanty.

Marjina, 12, is taken to a hospital on a cart used to carry trash, outside their rented shanty.