60 people from West Bengal segregate waste manually, without gloves.
While hundreds of people of Mandur and surrounding villages blocked Baiyappanahalli-Mandur Road, protesting dumping of garbage, around 60 people from West Bengal and four families from Bangladesh carried out their routine: Segregating waste manually.
It is sickening to see children having food amid garbage dumps while their parents segregate waste manually, without gloves.
Most of them are suffering from skin allergies, but have no option than working in that unhygienic atmosphere for survival. Each of them gets Rs 200 per day for working in an atmosphere from where even animals will run away because of the odour.
“I have to depend on this work since I am not familiar with Bangalore,” said Hanif, who claims to have migrated from Bangladesh.
When asked about the contractor, Hanif expressed ignorance and said one of the agents of contractor visits the dump yard every day and pays the money.
“I want to send my children to nearby school but they do not know the local language and it is also not possible for me to afford to send them to the nearby school,’’ he said.
All the workers engaged in segregation of waste have no gloves to protect their hands from infection.
As if it is not enough, they have to stay in dingy sheds put up by the contractor amidst garbage dumps. The result: They have to sleep in that dingy sheds that have no electricity, daring crawling worms from the packets of wet waste.
Depending on God
“It all depends on the mercy of God. We have no enough money for treatment if we suffer from fever or skin-related allergy,’’ said Moosa who claims to have come from West Bengal.
When contacted, Prakash, a contractor from Bidarahalli, claims of taking all welfare measures for the benefit of people segregating waste. “I have supplied hand gloves and drinking water for them apart from paying Rs 200 per day to each person. I supply plastic segregated from the waste to a dealer at KR Market in Bangalore. I earn more than Rs 10,000 profit per month from this business,’’ said Prakash.
When asked about paying money towards treatment for them, he said that he would help them whenever they need it. He has refused to say whether it is ethical to thrive on at the cost of hapless people who come forward to take up such job due to utter penury.
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