HYDERABAD: In Indian cities, a major, yet highly underrated, fall out of a poor solid waste management is the effect it has on child rag pickers. As Telangana continues to fare poorly in solid waste management, apart from the environment, its children are forced to bear the brunt.
A study on the condition of 250 child rag pickers from the State highlights how dangerous their childhood has become. The study conducted by Prof B Suresh Lal of the economics department in Kakatiya University, has thrown light on shocking facts.
Of the 250 child rag pickers interviewed, over 80 per cent were in the age group of 11 to 15 years, with a majority of them below 14 years, which is the legal age for employing children in hazardous jobs.
Rag picking is undoubtedly a dangerous job. Prof Suresh Lal found that 82 per cent children reportedly suffered at least one health hazard. A large part of them, 58 per cent, said that they suffered wounds and rashes while 24 per cent said that they frequently were bitten by dogs and snakes. What is worse, the children, on an average, earned a just Rs 11,000 per annum.
Substance abuse was also found to be very high with 86 per cent of them admitting to being addicted to tobacco, and 68 per cent to alcohol and other drugs.
Moreover, while the country has been declared free of open defecation, 70 per cent of the interviewed children said that they defecated in the open due to lack of access to individual latrines. This, considering, child rag pickers usually live in small roadside huts (30 per cent), onthe streets (8 per cent), or in slums (58 per cent).
It may be noted that rag picking becomes a source of income when the waste generated is not segregated at the source, which is a major problem in Telangana. For 98 per cent of the children, the rag they picked consisted primarily of plastics, glass bottles, cardboard, papers, and metals, which can be easily found at garbage dumping sites, street corners, and strewn across residential areas. Whenever such children are found, childcare agencies should counsel their parents, and send them to school, the professor said.