Pride of the Rag-Picker
The world generates 2.01 billion tonnes of solid waste annually. India is the 2nd largest populated country and 3rd largest economy in terms of purchasing power. The urban India generates 62 million tons of waste annually. Only 43 million tonnes are collected out of which 31 million are dumped in landfill and just 11.9 million tons are treated. Dumping yards are mostly open places that hold mixes of different materials are dumped without precautions. It results most degraded toxic environment.
One group of people is not only working there but also live directly on the dumping sites, and are not aware of the health risks. The rag-pickers, their social, economic, and living standard are stigmatized and remain on the side-lines of society. The dumping sites are toxic which leads to facing different health risks, diseases, malnutrition among rag-pickers. A study, reveals 38% of women workers had lost one child, and 10% had lost 3 or more, 80% had eye problems 73% had respiratory ailments, etc…
Aimabig is an initiative, which creates a model to formally employ rag-pickers. Formal employment means, that rag-pickers for the first time have benefits and health insurance. In addition to basic training and safety gear, they would continue to work with their new professional identity of being a Treasure hunter and a waste collection expert. We ensure their working conditions will be safe. We empower the community members to segregate the waste so that our Treasure hunters can just collect the waste and deliver it to the Treasure Hunt resource centre and our team, after paying the hunters per KG, send it further to recycling industries. In this way, we become part of a circular economy. We aim to relief the former so called “rag-pickers” from the social and professional stigma attached to them. Through workshops, tailored to community members, we will train households in the segregation of waste with the aim of reducing and sorting waste before it is picked up by our Treasure Hunters. This will reduce their insecurities; their health issues and it will reduce stigma.
We work to create a formal organisation in waste management that helps to ensure and protect the social, economic, and employment welfare of the rag-pickers and community workers. We work towards developing an organisation, its tools which able to facilitate a safe working environment and self-reliance employment opportunity for them in waste management. We will facilitate them in the process of collection and segregation of solid recyclable waste.
