CUTTACK: The ragpickers' rehabilitation programme initiated by Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) six years back is yet to be implemented in the city. The civic body seems to have abandoned the programme after issuing temporary identity cards to only 45 ragpickers.
Going through guidelines of Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) and the Plastic Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011, the CMC in 2016 had planned for ragpickers rehabilitation programme and initiated a step to maintain cleanliness in the city by involving ragpickers in the sanitation drive.
The ragpickers are mostly unorganised labour class community and are highly stigmatised but they play a vital role in maintaining cleanliness in cities, towns and also in the rural areas by regularly collecting solid waste, which includes plastic, polythene bags and carton boxes.
Considering their plight and to give them an identity for the work that they do, the CMC had decided to identify ragpickers and issue identity cards linked to their respective Aadhaar cards. CMC had also planned to provide gloves, cleanliness jackets to ragpickers and to sensitise them towards safe and proper handling of waste. There were also a plan in place to provide healthcare service to their families by organising health camps.
In order to include them in the mainstream the CMC had also chalked out plan to make the jobs of the ragpickers more remunerative by including them in Odisha Livelihood Mission (OLM) and also to upgrade their skills, making them eligible for other jobs including self employment.
While launching the initiatives, the civic body had convened a meeting with 100 city-based ragpickers on December 2, 2016. However, since then no steps have been taken to implement the welfare programmes or to conduct further survey to identify and include rest of the ragpickers under the plan. Moreover, there are no whereabouts of the 45 ragpickers who were provided with temporary identity cards.
The new CMC Commissioner Nikhil Pavan Kalyan said the matter would be reviewed and steps would soon be taken for the implementation of the ragpickers rehabilitation plan.