A Child Ragpicker Investigation in India

1. INTRODUCTION

Ragpicker or chiffonnier is a name for a person who lives by stumbling through street waste to find salvage material. Cloth and paper scratches might be transformed into cardboard, shattered glass could be melted and re-used and cleanses may even be made by deceased cats and dogs. In the 19th and early 20th centuries ragpickers didn't recycle the materials themselves; they just collected what they could find, and they turned it into a master ragpicker that, in turn, would sell it usually by weight for wealthy investors, who could convert the materials to something more profitable. Although this was just a profession for the lowest working classes, ragpicking was seen as an honest task rather than as a beggar on the street. For example, ragpickers in Paris have been controlled by legislation; their activities are limited to particular hours of the night and any exceptionally costly objects should be returned to the owner or the authorities. Eugène Poubelle was condemned for interference with ragpickers' livelihoods when he first introduced the rubbish can in 1884 in the French press. The trade finally declined, although it never completely vanished; rag and bone men remained in operation until the 1970's. Modern sanitary and recycling initiatives. Ragpicking is still prevalent in Third World nations, including Mumbai, India. It provides a possibility for the poorest members of the community to make a hand-to-hand supply of money via waste and recycling regions. In 2015, the Minister for the Environment of India stated that the service of ragpickers was a national prize. The award is presented to three top rag pickers, and is awarded with a monetary reward of Rs. 1,5 lakh.

The society has not only failed to safeguard children, but has not been adequately treated. The majority of the impoverished youngsters aged from 5 to 18 earn their living by sanding shoes, washing vehicles, parking, traps, etc, and their typical income depends on how much labour is done between the Rs 15 to 20 per day. And these kids may be readily located at the bus stop, train station, film theatre and so on struggling to survive. Sometimes the buyers pushed youngsters to become rag pickers and sometimes the youngsters themselves are self-sufficient rag pickers. And so started the voyage of their exploitation, their dealings with criminals, their drug addiction, which was not beneficial for their growth or for the community in which they lived.

and protected can a nation thrive. To achieve this, all children, i.e. decent living, the right to education, the right to protection from exploitation, are provided certain essential rights. However, various reasons have shown that rights have been infringed. Only for that reason, rag picking was classified as one of the banned job procedures of children who were not 14 years of age for the protection of children from their exploitation in Part B of the 1986 Child Labor (Prohibition and Regulation).

A great deal have been done to figure out the explanation behind the youngsters working as rag pickers by writers, academics, non-governmental organisations, etc. And poverty is the most typical factor behind it. The researchers will next perform some study on the subject of children's rag pickers and their results. Kamat says in his essay Ragpickers of India s/he says that most children in Rag picking are really impoverished, ignorant and in need of additional revenue from those young youngsters. In their study, Girl Child in India, Tripathy and Pradhan discuss again the issue of child labour in Berhampur, which comprises both men and women and their situation in the risky activity of rag picking (Orissa). They address the familial dimensions of girls rag pickers in their work. The family size of the female child pickers is more than 6 people. Balkumar et. al. studied the families of Nepalese kid rag pickers in their work Nepal's 'Child Rag pickers' situation: a fast assessment' In six main localities the authors performed a study of 300 youngsters between 5 and 17 years of age who were trappers. The average family size of children's rag pickers is 5.4, somewhat larger than the national average of 5.1. The female rag collectors are often coming from households bigger than guys (6.3). (5.2). This evaluation demonstrates that the overwhelming majority of children questioned have two parents (own or father, mother or biological parents); just a handful belong to households with a step parent. To evaluate the economic background of the juvenile rag pickers, three markers were considered in their evaluation. More over 2/3 (68 percent) of respondents reported owning their family home. The majority (54.7 percent) of kid rag pickers do not own farms. In rag pickers' families, their primary activity is non-agricultural and may include small enterprises, mechanical jobs, etc., with very limited money being paid for it. And some of the members of the household were selecting rags. Again, Mita Bhadrain's "Girl Child in the Indian Society" research shows that most girls who were rag pickers come from extremely impoverished of the families Caste and Tribe. Even Kshitij§ (a project for Bhandewari Dumping Ground, Nagpur's Child Rag Pickers) shows that rag pickers constitute a significant share for the urban informal economy's lowest employees. The traditional beggars choose to select rags. Most of the rag grabbers come to immigrant households and are very impoverished, uneducated. They need more revenue for their family. Rag pickers**: Different Graveyard scavengers, A Rag Pickers' Documentary in Mumbai examines the lives of rag Pickers who have discovered most of them below the poverty line and socio-economic strata and live hard times. In his book "Child Labour: A Reality," Rai carried out a study on the rag picker's family and discovered that majority of the youngsters lived in metropolitan areas. And many had no relationship with their family. Again in a 1990 NGO study entitled "Agape, Bangalore" the father demands further money of the wife's family to fund his drunkeness. He discovers that rags originate from violent and damaged houses, maybe from the second marriages where the mother was branded with kerosene. Kids who did not wish to be married from the first time were kidnapped, starved and deprived of safety and affection. Others of them are obliged to labour and earn money from a very early age, some are affected by peer pressure, and some are orphans who struggle for survival every day. Kids who cannot withstand everyday beatings and dysfunctions run away and become street kids. Girls must even beg for their own survival and for that of the younger kid to care for younger relatives. They are being treated as slaves in the house and at a very young age many are coerced into prostitution.

Kamat (1999), The Ragpicking Children's Family Status is mentioned in his essay "Ragpickers of India." Most of the raggers belong to rural migratory households and to severely destitute people, analphabets. Most households require these young children's additional money. In their "Child in India," Tripathy and Pradhan (2003) demonstrate in a hazardous employment of ragpicking in the city of Berhampur the issue of child labour, both male and female (Orissa). In this article they talk about girls ragpickers' family size. The family size of the girl is more than 6 people. Singh (2006), Ragpickers, depending on interaction with their family, were mostly divided abandoned buildings, etc., but it's a lot of time to work or to hang about in the streets. The biggest of the three groups has been estimated. ii) Kids who live and work on the street with infrequent encounters with family members. Sometimes these youngsters give their family money. You see the streets as your homes. iii) Kids who would have no interaction with their families whatsoever. These youngsters are abandoned or neglected or alienated from their relatives. Their love, devotion and compassion for the family are psychologically starved. Rita Pannikkar’s (1992), Street girls research in the Union Delhi Territory describes street girl children's case study. The youngest of four girls from a household, the father is a ragpicker and this girl takes rags and increases family income too. This applies to the children. She is obliged to perform job that she doesn't enjoy because of circumstances. She has become a working child of a favorite kid and has been working over 16 to 18 hours a day without any protests. She just worked with an illiterate farmer and expects her future spouse to aid her. She wants a home of her own where she wouldn't watch rags, with pleasant environs. She wants to learn how to wear new outfits that she likes. Shishir Srivastava (2008) He researched kid ragpickers in Delhi's capital city in his paper "Ragpickers in Modern Day India." The majority of them are small youngsters. There are several lakh ragpickers. The education of young children has from time to time been promised, but the promise is never fulfilled. These youngsters forget schooling and must labour in the hardest environment, yet find it hard to achieve their goals. For the young children, the government has attempted a lot. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyana, the programme for free mid-day meal and many more actions. But what were they successful? Bal Kumar, etal (2001) Data from kid ragpickers training were studied in their study. Almost half of children are literate, yet there is a substantial difference between literate children and females. With the age of children, which is seen as a normal tendency, the reading level grows, In Brahmin and Chhetris the literacy level is the greatest, with Tamangs, Magars and other hill ethnic groups ranging from 56 to 58 per cent and the Dalits and Taria Children being much lower. According to Gupta, et. al. (2001) Mobile street children school concept may be launched. This terrible number of street kids who work as rag pickers poses the biggest obstacle to the economic worth of time spent in schooling. Alternative occupations or allowances are not appealing since school registration incentives are now too large. NGOs thus aim to implement this step, since it is immediately necessary, and children do not want to Malay Dewanji (2001) The study on the education of ragpickers his essay "Child Labor Problem in India." Often, the youngsters labour as household servants, rag pickers or even as beggars at tiny industries, auto garages, food stalls, shoes. No education policy could make it more advantageous for the parents to send their children to schools than education. Bharati Chaturved In her essay "Ragpickers: The Bottom Rung in the Garbage Trade Ladder," an expert in ragpicker organisation in Chintan, India, discloses that the picker would have to start work as early as 4 a.m, since the waste was missing otherwise. You may start recognising your own ragpicker as a resident since the routes are fully territorial. At night or every time the bag is packed, a ragpicker will go back and sell at a middleman's shop, also referred to as a kabari. While he sells the garbage 68 of plastics, paper and metals need be separated according to about 30 distinct sorts. They need to be clean and dry, otherwise they can't be accepted by kabari. The little segregation is located on the streets of the town, where thousands of the most poor garbage is cleared. They may even wash out materials, stuffed for hours, waste separation. Mamata Rajawat (2004), She notes that many youngsters earn a wage by cleaning up city trash, gathering paper, bottles, rage, and bones, in her essay "Child Labour-The Indian perspective." Some distributors take what they discover and pay for it, but it is little that they normally have agreements that define their area, so they have to stand up before the city moves to make sure that nobody poaches on their territory. Physical and psychological agony is experienced in these impoverished and vulnerable youngsters.

Risk-1: In poverty-stricken nations one billion children live. Children living in poverty are at increased risk of dying before 5 years of age and malnutrition which hinders their development, is driven out of school and is forced to go out into child labour or early marriage. Risk-2: In nations afflicted by violence and instability, at least 240 million children live. The probability of these kids being fatally impaired by starvation, abandoning school, compelled to work and driven from their families in risky and terrible conditions is increasing before age 5. Lal-Lal (2019). Risk-3: The danger of 4 typically places women with a hyper risk of mortality, risk 5 of education denied, driven into early matrimony and delivery

Those youngsters risk being robbed of their youth and their potential for the future by whom they are and where they live. The attack on childhood takes away the vitality and creativity that countries need to advance, Lal (2019).

Oates (2018) has done a significantly varying analysis, estimating the production of urban garbage in India, though most assessments range from 47 million tonnes/year. Compared to that of several industrialized nations, Doron (2018) seems to be a low number. For example, despite the fact that there is a population barely one fifth the size of India the United States of America creates over 250 million tonnes of rubbish each year. The urban population of India should, nevertheless, reach 800 million by 2050. In the event that existing trends remain, waste creation may expand simultaneously. Deposits and dumping sites in or near metropolitan areas are fast filling, leading to serious contamination of air, water and land and to large emissions of methane. There are also changes in the content of garbage throughout the nation. Most of them were organic in the past. Today, paper and plastics are more important, and need more complicated and advanced treatment, aggravating India's task.

Despite major work over past years, there is a lack of capacity, finance or infrastructure in many local governments (typically responsible for trash management). The projected annual cost of municipalities in India is Rs. 70 to Rs. 150 (US$1 to $2) in solid residues. These amounts are a fraction of how much the US cities spend (13-60 dollars) and of what Rotterdam, the Netherlands, pays (187 dollars) less than 1 per cent. The idea of funding for large-scale incinerators and waste treatment facilities for private or donor companies, for example - a prospect which municipalities could not otherwise afford - is thus seen as especially enticing. Oates (2018).

Children die in child labour, and while they are selecting rags they are vulnerable to their peak. When a youngster is involved in child labour.

In Table 1, 80 percent of kid ragpickers are aged 11-15, whereas 20 percent of children below 10 years of age. Table 2 provides statistics on age groups. Almost 74% of ragpickers are analphabetists, while the remaining 25% are scholars. 62% of the respondents belong to the Schedule Caste group, 24% to the Schedule Tribes and 14% to Backward class. Rogers have 170 of 250 responses who earn less than 11,000/rupees per year and between 11,000 and 15,000 rupees per year. Rogers are receiving 80 people. It signifies that the poverty line is lower and that the income is extremely low. 58% of people live in slums, 30% in shelters, while 8% of people live on the streets, whilst 4% remain at bus stops and train stations. Such child-picking lifestyles increase slums, raise health issues due to slum living, pollution increase, poor salaries, crime and suicide rises, reduces food intake, trafficking, accidents and safe lives, Lal Lifestyles (2007).

Table-2 shows the health of kid wrestlers in the field, most of them walk on foot to gather rags and their share is 90. All ragpickers are mostly susceptible to their health, confronting three health threats: physical, biological, and psychological; 50%; 17%, and 18%, respectively, suffer health risks. Health concerns such as rashes, cuts, lesions, dog bites and snake bites in the study regions are also serious difficulties among infant ragpickers. These youngsters are regularly 26% are irregular and have huge costs for the operation. Table 2.

The ragpicker workflow may be detected in three phases: material collection, separation and marketing. 98% of plastics, glass bottles, cardboard, paperness, tin, iron, copper, and aluminium are mostly used for rag picking. These residues are found at garbage dumps, street corners or residential neighbourhoods. Waste is typically separated inside or outside the rabbit dwellings or on abandoned property beside roads, rivers and old industrial areas. Bicycles may sometimes be utilised, or the ragpickers themselves carry their loads. 4.2 Working hours of rag pickers: In this survey, over 85% of rag pickers work 4–8 hours daily, whereas only 15% of rag pickers work less than 4 hours daily. In addition, all rag pickers have been discovered to be working for 2-3 weeks a month. 4.3 Earning Pattern: Table 1 shows that 67% of ragpickers are producing less than 11,000 rupees annually, while 32% of ragpickers are selling waste collected between 11,000 and 15,000 rupees annually (e.g. plastics, glass bottles, cart, paper, fleece, copper, tin, iron and aluminium), and that these works have a direct relationship with their preferences. Child rag pickers labour long hours for excellent collection. 4.4 Health and Sanitation Conditions: 70% of those interviewed have an open defecation habit because they never locate toilet facilities and live in bungalows, on the road and elsewhere, and there is no bath. However, Sulabh Complex toilets account for 30% of responses. Many ragpickers said their problems were confronted by the absence of restroom facilities during sickness. The main problem was poor environmental hygiene, insecurity of drinking water, inappropriate disposal of human excreta, further compounded by low literacy, low socioeconomic status and blind cultural belief, lack of access to health facilities that lead to a severe public health problem, which promotes the fecal-oral transmission of enteric pathogens, Lal (2011). There is no doubt about the necessity of cleanliness. Real hygiene is an important step towards health and may save almost 1,5 million children who die from diarrhoea due to inadequate sanitation every year. Lal (2013). In addition to these health issues, in the municipalities micronutrient shortage, iodine deficiency and food deficit result in a mental

Beside food, the majority are smoking, alcohol and drug spending by youngsters questioned. Smoking among ragpickers is rather frequent. 86% of those who smoke ragpickers. Alcohol and drug users account for 68 percent of survey responses. This research illuminates alcohol abuse issues and related complications. A wide variety of personal, societal and health concerns occur from the usage of alcohols. Alcoholic beverages and misuse may lead to a number of treatments, including heart disease, stroke, haematology, cancer, Urinary System and Nervous System, etc. Hematologic illnesses, etc. Lal (2015). They engage in medicines, alcohol, cigarettes, gambling, and mishandling. Because their revenues are lower than their costs, they are permanent creditors to retail scrap dealers, because of their poor practises. They engage in robbery, street fighting and crime., Lal (2006).

5.1 The curse of poverty: Poverty in India is the major factor for child labour. Poverty affects most of the country's population. Due to the poverty of their children, their parents cannot afford to study and earn their salaries from a young age. You are fully aware of the sorrow that you lose your loved ones numerous times due to poverty. Their young children are sent to work in workplaces, houses and businesses. They are compelled to labour to raise their poor families' income as soon as possible. These choices are simply done to provide their families a livelihood. But such actions disrupt the physical and emotional condition of children as they lose their early infancy. 5.2 Lack of educational resources: There are cases in which youngsters are denied their basic right to education even after 72 years of the independence of our nation. In our nation there are hundreds of communities without appropriate schooling facilities. And it's miles away if there's anything. This laxity of administration is also accountable in India for child labour. The worst victims are low-income families, for whom it is a dream to educate your children. The absence of an inexpensive education school for underprivileged students often makes them unfathomable and powerless. Kids are forced to live unstudied. And such compulsions can force kids into India Lal's child labour trap (2019).

also social and economic backwardness. Socially regressive parents do not send their kids to be educated. Their children are thus stuck in child labour. Because of analphabetism, parents often do not know about different information and child education methods. Failure to provide education, ignorance and hence a lack of understanding of their rights fostered child work. Uneducated parents are also unaware of the consequences on their children of child work. Poverty and unemployment are the pressing grounds for rural households to engage children in a variety of chores. Feudal, zamindari and its remains continue to pursue India's child labour issue, Lal (2019). 5.4 Addiction, disease, or disability: In many families no revenue is available because of alcohol addiction, disease or handicap, and the earnings of the kid are the primary source of support for the family. Growth in population is also growing, hurting child labour prevention. Thus, parents are inclined to send them to work to enhance their family income rather than to send their children to school. Alcohol is an illness when the individual is in need of alcohol in an emotional or bodily way, even if drinking affects their lives. It is an illness which is not supported by the strength of the will alone. Unless handled, this will worsen and harm personal, family and social lives, work, physical health, feeling of value and well-being, etc. Alcoholism is commonly referred to as a family illness, since alcoholics are harmful to the lives of families and others. Family members frequently need to take part in the therapy to make the alcoholic good, Lal(2015). 5.5 The lure of cheap labor: Some business owners, businesses and factory owners use minors in the gulf of cheap labour so that they have to pay less and that is cheap labour. Shopkeepers and small business operators make their youngsters labour as much as the elderly, but pay half the salary. There is also less likelihood of stealing, coveting or misappropriating money in the case of child labour. As globalisation, privatization and consumption culture developed, there has been increased encouragement of child labour in India by the necessity for cheap labour and the economic demands of low-income families, Lal (2019). 5.6 Consequences of Ragpickers: Homelessness, the growth of drugs, sexual growth, HIV/AIDs, social security threats, increasing crime, etc. have a serious influence on society. Even children themselves, who are exposed to illness and accidents, intoxication, drug dependence exposure,

Therefore, social awareness and groups of action to help build the feeling of society and belonging of these youngsters and to make them accessible to them to the community in a pleasant manner are the final answer to this issue. Such social work calls on government institutions, NGOs and the society as a whole to dedicate themselves and strive toward it. We propose a new strategy that places people and their work at the heart of economic, social and corporate policies: a human-centered work agenda. Three action pillars are the emphasis of this agenda. First, investing in people's capacities enables them to develop skills, resilience and empowerment and help them through different transitions throughout their lives. Secondly: investment in work institutions to provide the future of working in a free, dignified, economic and equitable manner. Thirdly: investment in decent and sustainable employment and the development of regulations and incentives to bring economic, social and corporate policies into line with this agenda. These investments may be major drivers of justice and sustainability for current and future generations by using disruptive technology, demographic possibilities and the green economy, Lal(2019).

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Research Scholars, Department of Sociology, Sai Meer Degree College, Uttar Pradesh