My Internship with Chintan in Delhi

What ho!! The moment I’m writing this is the evening of my second full day in Delhi. I’m sitting in my “living-room”, my tummy is filled with delicious Indian food (chicken tikka roll), and I’m exhausted after a busy day. There is a big smile on my face and I hope it will remain there over night when my stomach starts dealing with the food.

I’m pleased to say that my journey from the UK was pretty eventless and all my flights were on time. After my friend Aaron had driven me to Heathrow (thanks again Aaron!!) I spent the night there on a bench and actually managed to get some sleep. I then took the plane from Heathrow to Paris in the early morning from where I got my connection to Delhi. I landed here in Delhi shortly before midnight and got myself a prepaid taxi to a hotel that the people from Chintan had booked for me in advance. After a good night’s sleep, Brij from Chintan picked me up and took me to the office where I was fed, introduced to everyone and shown my workspace. In the afternoon I was then taken to the estate agent and I was given a room, of which I will put up photos shortly. It consists of a bathroom (with a hot water tank giving me just enough hot water for a 2 minute shower J) a bedroom with a double bed and a living room with a fridge. It is pretty spacious but also rather dirty and old. However, it being within walking distance from the office is what really matters to me… so all I need to do now is figure out the way to get there.

After having slept for around 14 hours last night I woke up in the late morning today. It being a bank holiday (Republic Day) the office was closed and so I had a day to explore the city. I decided to head into the center of New Delhi. I took the metro, which is thanks to the Commonwealth Games extremely user friendly, highly modern, and yet ridiculously cheap. It being my first visit to India I decided to, in proper tourist style, make my way to (and through) the Indian Gate (a.k.a. the War Memorial Arch). Having had a lie in, I missed out on the parade but when I arrived there were still a lot of people in the streets. From the Gate I made my way towards the President Estate. Unfortunately, due to the festivities the road to get closer to it was still closed, so I headed further North towards Central Park and Connaught Place.

As impressive as the mile between the Arch and the President Estate is, as disappointing did I find the inner circle of the Connaught Place. It’s overly touristy (even though some locals were playing badminton in front of the Levis Jeans Store) and just not very nice… I thought it had a rather artificial feeling to it.

Now, I have to say that even though it sounds like I haven’t seen a lot, you need to keep in mind that this place is absolutely massive and places are far apart from each other. I don’t know how many miles I’ve walked today but it must have been a couple. The blisters on my feet (yes I should have walked in my new walking boots more than I did) stand as proof.

I suppose I’m not really giving you any impression about how Delhi feels.  And to be honest it’s very hard to describe, probably mainly due to the fact that Delhi can be divided into a number of cities, which are all different (well at least the few parts I’ve discovered so far). That part of the greater city, which has until now impressed me the most is the part in which I live (Lajpat Nagar IV). Especially at night the place is just magic. Just like when you swim though the sea and hit a warmer or colder current, when you walk through the streets and back streets, you are constantly exposed to different smells and sounds, and you never know what awaits you around the next corner. There are a lot of small shops and street vendors here selling everything (apart from toilet paper L) from traditional silk clothing to modern smart phones. Streets are in a bad condition, the lights don’t always work (my room is in an especially dark corner) and it is very dusty (that includes my bed – thank god I brought my sleeping bag). Nevertheless there are plenty of cars and tuck tucks and the place is is very lively. What pleases me most however is that I don’t seem to stand out as the tall white Westerner that I am who aimlessly wanders around in the hope to find back the street where his room is. I thought I would be hassled more, but I find that most street vendors and auto rickshaw drivers just ignore me. And it is not a touristy place at all, unlike in the center of New Delhi where I was constantly spoken too by people trying to make some money.

Anyway, these are just some of my first impressions as a tourist here in Delhi. Tomorrow I’ll be working with Chintan again. That’s what I’m here for and I’m really looking forward to it. I’ll post an update as soon as I can.

Take care,

Sven

Hello!!

Just a quick update. It’s quarter past midnight now and I’m sitting at Heathrow airport… waiting for my flight to Paris which will leave at 6:40 today. From Paris I’ll then fetch a flight to Delhi where I’ll be arriving shortly before midnight Delhi time. Once I’m there I’ll be making my way to a hotel where I’ll be staying for the first night before I get a room somewhere else. Where that will be I’m not sure – but I have been assured that something has been sorted out for me. So fingers crossed.

For now I just wanted to say that I’m finally starting to realise that this is all really happening. The last two weeks have been really busy and I did not have much time to think. But now I’m getting really excited 🙂

Anyway, I will update you when I’m in Delhi.

All the best,

Sven

What ho!

With less than a week to go before I jet off to Delhi, in this post I will try to explain why I am so interested in the issue of rag picking. I’ll try to keep this post shorter than the last one and so I will, without going into too much detail, just mention some of the topics that are related to rag picking and that I think make rag picking such an interesting phenomenon. Hopefully I will find some time in the future to add some posts more specifically dealing with these issues.

Anyhow, why is it that I think that rag picking is so interesting? When I was first reflecting about this post and the best way to briefly describe what rag picking signifies to me, one word kept popping up in my mind: “CONTRAST”.

The world in which we live is rapidly urbanising. More and more people migrate to the world’s cities and soon, more that half of the world’s population will be living in urban areas. As a consequence most cities are growing immensely fast… and in any direction. Skyscrapers are getting higher and higher, land is reclaimed from the sea, and in some cases, traditional rural settlements are literally consumed by cities. When that happens, people who have for generations been farmers and fishermen (and women) no longer have to migrate to the city. The city comes to them.

Our growing cities are very often portrayed in terms of their wealth, culture, and architecture. And it is true that, some urbanites have become increasingly wealthy and can afford to live in one of the many redevelopments, or in one of the posher gated and privately supervised areas. Yes, some can even afford one of the luxurious penthouses with a stunning view over the most glamorous city-districts. Unfortunately however, this is only one side of the coin. In fact the cities’ “middle-classes” have started to crumble. This means for some an entry into a financially more secure life. For the majority, however, the reality is bleaker.  Slums are growing like never before and jobs become less and less secure. Thus, cities emerge as arenas of immense contrast.

In my view, rag pickers are a perfect example of this contrast. Oftentimes, they live in shantytowns or slums and struggle for daily survival, only miles or even yards away from very striking representations of wealth and “human progress”. And yet these people have to rely on other people’s waste in order to survive. Waste is something that richer people no longer want. It is something that is of so little value that it can be discarded off without much thinking. Rag pickers thus survive on something survive that most of us consider as a nuisance. Some people gladly pay so that their waste is collected and they never have to think about it again… In some cases rag pickers pay to get better access to waste. I think you get the idea; our whole concept of what constitutes “waste” is shaken. Something in that we no longer see any value suddenly is the basis for somebody else’s physical survival. The saying “one person’s trash is someone else’s treasure” could probably not be illustrated in a more powerful manner.

Yet, rag picking does not just make the difference between little income and no income for some. In fact, the impact of rag picking goes much further. Firstly rag pickers, especially in developing countries, contribute to the removal of solid waste in the streets of the cities. The municipalities of cities in developing countries often struggle to accomplish this task on their own. Rag pickers thus contribute to the management of solid wastes and in some cases even substitute official waste collection.

By collecting waste and selling it as a recyclable good, rag pickers furthermore play an essential part in the creation of secondary raw materials. The use of secondary raw materials is considerably cheaper for the industries than expending raw materials gained from primary sources. Rag pickers thus positively impact upon the economies of developing countries. As, the usage of secondary raw materials reduces energy consumption, carbon emissions are lowered. Rag picking therefore additionally bears benefits for the environment. And this is even without mentioning that rag pickers reduce the amount of garbage that gets disposed at open dumps.

However, rag picking often remains attached to a negative stigma, originating from the association of “waste” with dirt. This oftentimes overshadows the positive contributions, which rag pickers make, to the economy, the environment, and to society more generally. I think it is important that we do not make this same mistake!

Anyway, I hope that this entry has given you a rough idea about the vast implications of rag picking. I hope that I was able to show that there is more to rag picking then one might at first think.  Of course I wanted to say much more than this, but yet again I do realise that this entry has once again become rather long. Before I end, I just want to mention Mike Davies excellent account on the growing numbers of slums in a book entitled “Planet of Slums”. It’s an excellent and really interesting read and I can thoroughly recommend it to anybody who was interested in what I had to say in the first part of this post.

Thanks for your interest!

All the best,

Sven

Hello again,

I have, in my first post and in the ‘About me” section, frequently referred to the term ‘rag picking’ and ‘rag pickers’. The term is even part of the domain name of this blog. But what does it actually mean? In this post I intend to clarify what I understand by the term “rag picking” and what being a ‘rag picker’ in the developing world signifies. This entry will be longer than usual and therefore I have decided that will I explain why I am so interested in this phenomenon in a future post.

As a start, I want you to think for a minute about what the word rag picking or rag picker means to you. I’m sure that for many of you this will bring to mind images of impoverished children climbing piles of rubbish on a garbage dump. And even though this is indeed one representation of a particular type of rag picking, the more general idea of rag picking is nevertheless not strictly limited to this very strong image that represents absolute poverty in one of its most extreme expressions.

Under rag picking I understand the informal collection of any type of solid waste. This collection does not necessarily have to only take place on the garbage dump.Rag pickers also collect waste out of bins, from the streets, out of rivers, and even out of the lorries of the municipal waste management services. In academia, most scholars describe this activity as ‘scavenging’. Some also use terms such as ‘(informal) waste collecting’, ‘scrounging’, ‘waste picking’, or ‘waste recycling’ to describe the same occupation. There is however a good reason why I chose to use the term ‘rag picker’ instead of the more commonly used ‘scavenger’. In some countries, such as India, ‘scavenging’ refers to people transporting human faeces. In these countries, calling someone a ‘scavenger’ can be regarded as an insult and is very degrading.

Usually rag pickers try to collect as much waste as possible. On a daily basis, they then sell it on to middle (wo)men as a secondary raw material. Secondary raw materials are goods, which through the process of recycling can be reused in the industrial process. One very typical type of goods collected by rag pickers is for example cardboard. In some places cardboard is so commonly collected that rag pickers have become known as “cartoneros”. Contrary to what one might believe, rag pickers are usually not looking for waste that they can re-use or recycle themselves (even though this does of course happen, too). It is more likely that rag pickers are rather interested in materials, which they can sell for a financial return. In the developing world these materials can consist of almost anything: plastic bottles, paper, rags, bones, card board, scrap metal, glass, cigarettes… the list goes on and on.

Rag pickers are usually paid according to volume/weight and quality of the collected materials by a middle (wo)man. Usually they only receive a very small income that is just about enough for their daily survival. In many cases whole families are therefore occupied as rag pickers. They are also often in debt to the middle (wo)men whom they sell the materials too and thus become dependent and have to remain with the same trader, regardless of what price the trader decides to offer them for their goods.

Rag pickers can be of any age and any gender. In fact, there are some places where women rag pickers are predominant. But this depends from region to region. Oftentimes rag pickers are migrants who have come to the city in order to lead a better life and frequently they are illegal immigrants. Rag picking is also not strictly limited to people with little formal education. There are many accounts of well educated rag pickers that can be found in the scholarly literature. In many places rag pickers belong to the lower religious casts or minority groups. Examples are the ‘scheduled casts’ in India, and the Coptic Christians in Egypt.

People living of other people’s waste is in no way a new trend. On the contrary, the collection of other people’s wastes used to have a long tradition in European countries. One can for example think of the German “Lumpenkremer” (rag men) and their Luxembourgish equivalents the “Lompekréimer”, as well as the French “chiffonniers” who all played a part of everyday life about two centuries ago. These rag men were travellers who traded rags for small household items. The collected rags were sold on and used in the paper production process.

It is also interesting to note that scavenging peoples’ rubbish bins in the search for valuables is not an activity that is strictly limited to the developing world. Almost everywhere, there are people who are constantly on the outlook for scrap metals, which can be sold for recycling, or items that might be re-used or fetch some money on a yard or car boot sale. The main difference between waste collectors in the ‘developed’ world and the rag pickers in the developing world probably is that the former are not reliant on informal waste collection for survival. For them it usually is a form of income enhancement. For some people, re-using waste is even an ideological statement and the expression of an alternative lifestyle.

Personally I am mostly interested in rag picking as a main means of survival as it is usually the case in the developing world. Here, rag picking can of course be a very dangerous occupation. Especially the people, who work on the garbage dump, are exposed to many risks. They usually do not wear any protective equipment or clothing and search through the piles of waste, either with their bare hands, or with with metal hooks. Doing so, they often get injured by sharp objects and broken glass. There is also a great risk of getting into contact with fecal matters as well as toxic and medical wastes. Furthermore, rag pickers often have to compete with wild dogs and rats that are bound to carry contagious illnesses. Rag pickers are furthermore often exposed to extreme weather conditions. Since many rag pickers who collect waste at the dump also tend to live on or around the garbage dump. This poses further risks as has been shown by a trash slide in Manila (Philippines) in 2000 that cost the lives of at least 71 people living on the “smokey mountain” garbage dump.

When collecting garbage in the streets, there are other problems that rag pickers need to deal with. In many places rag pickers bear a very low social status. They are frequently victims of verbal and physical abuse (especially women and children) and for many local governments they are nothing more than an “unpleasant sight”, spoiling the view for tourists. Yet, many cities of the third world could not do without rag pickers to deal with their solid waste and to keep their streets relatively clean. Especially in slums, where conventional waste collection is impossible due to the narrowness of the streets, rag pickers play an essential role in getting rid of the garbage.

There is much more which can be said about rag picking, but for now I hope that this entry has helped to give you a rough idea about what it is all about. Obviously there there are other people with other opinions on this issue. Please also be aware that I have made many generalisations, which cannot be applied universally. Obviously, I always welcome your comments and ideas very much. So do not hesitate to get in touch. For those of you who want to know more about the issue at hand, here is the link to the Wikipedia entry. If you prefer a more academic account, Google-scholar the work of Martin Medina who is one, if not the specialist in the field. There are some short articles which are available online and which can be downloaded free of charge. I can also recommend his book “The World’s Scavengers”. Like all of Medina’s work, it is a very good read and it is written in a very accessible way.

My next entry will be shorter again and I will explain why I am so interested in rag picking in the developing world. Thanks for reading this entry.

Best wishes,

Sven

Hello and welcome to my blog ragpickers.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk. Thank you for taking interest in what I’m doing and in what I’m about to experience in the next weeks, when I’ll be doing an internship with Chintan, an NGO in Delhi. I hope you’ll find this blog informative as well as enriching and also hope that it will make you aware of some of the issues surrounding the activity of rag picking. At this moment in time it is very hard for me to tell how this blog will develop.  There are however some things which I can say in advance.

Let me start with a confession. Part of why I write this blog is of a rather selfish nature. I hope that I can use this space in order to write down my experiences and thoughts and so hopefully keep some sort of record of what’s on my mind and where my journey will take me, physically, academically, but also emotionally. So despite this blog being hosted by the University of Lincoln, its content will not be of an academic nature. Please also don’t expect this blog to be of exemplary grammar and style. Due to the time constrains, which I will be bound to when I’m in India, I will unfortunately not have the time to worry about how everything is written.

Another important reason why I write this blog is that I want to keep my family, friends, colleagues and anyone else who’s interested in what I’m doing, updated whilst I’m away. In the following entries I also want to introduce what my internship will be all about and what rag picking actually means.

I furthermore hope to be able to upload photographs of my journey as a visual addition to my written accounts. I hope this will help me to also visually share my experiences with you.

Thank you very much for visiting my blog.

All the best,

Sven