Photo Essay: The Story Of A Rag Picker

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Photo Essay The Story Of A Rag Picker
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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.
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While the rag pickers offer invaluable services
to the city, they have few rights and are exposed
to deadly poisons everyday.
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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.
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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 peoples garbage to find
salvageable bits to resell or recycle.
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Marjina leaves for the train station after saying
goodbye to her neighbors outside her rented
shanty on the outskirts of New Delhi.
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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.
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The family spent their days at a landfill picking
through other peoples garbage to find
salvageable bits to resell or recycle.
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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.
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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.
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While the rag pickers offer invaluable services
to the city, they have few rights. Every day,
they are exposed to deadly poisons.
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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. 
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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.
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The work took a toll on the familys health.
Marjinas children were constantly sick. Her
daughter contracted dengue fever and had to be
hospitalized.
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Marjina, right, and her 12-year old daughter
Murshida, walk down from a landfill after working
the entire day here
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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.
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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.
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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
wont in West Bengal, either, though all Indian
children have a right to free education.
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Whatever awaits the family, Marjina said, it
could not be worse than life as a rag picker in
New Delhi.
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Young waste pickers look for recyclable items at
a landfill. Rag picking is effectively the
primary recycling system in India. 
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While the rag pickers offer invaluable services
to the city, they have few rights and are exposed
to deadly poisons everyday. 
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Marjina, right, segregates trash with the help of
her children and a young neighbor outside their
rented shanty.
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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 peoples garbage
to find salvageable bits to resell or recycle.
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They arrived in New Delhi, hoping to find a
better life after their father abandoned them
without so much as a goodbye.
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A worker loads segregated trash for recycling on
a truck. Rag picking is effectively the primary
recycling system in India.
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While the rag pickers offer invaluable services
to the city, they have few rights and are exposed
to deadly poisons everyday.
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Murshida, 12, helps her mother Marjina lift a
sackful of trash for segregation outside their
rented shanty. 
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Marjina and her 12-year old daughter Murshida
wait for a trash dealer to weigh their segregated
trash.
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Shahid-ul, 7, right, sits on a sack of trash as
his mother Marjina, center, speaks to a neighbor
outside their rented shanty. 
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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.
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Marjina, right, her daughter Murshida, 12, and
seven-year old brother Shahid-ul make their way
towards a train station. 
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A neighbor teasingly gives a withered bouquet of
flowers, found in a bag of trash, to Marjina
outside their rented shanty. 
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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 peoples
garbage to find salvageable bits to resell or
recycle.
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They arrived in New Delhi, hoping to find a
better life after their father abandoned them
without so much as a goodbye.
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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.
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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.
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The family spends their day at a landfill picking
through other peoples garbage to find
salvageable bits to resell or recycle, earning
26 a month.
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Murshida, 12, daughter of rag picker Marjina,
lies on a sack of trash after she fell ill,
outside their rented shanty.
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Marjina, 12, is taken to a hospital on a cart
used to carry trash, outside their rented shanty.
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