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RAGPICKERS: scavengers at a different graveyard
a
documentary on the rag-pickers of Mumbai
As
of today, the city of Bombay generates nearly 8 million tons of Waste
(household, commercial, hotels and restaurants, markets, institutional,
construction etc etc). 85,000 Ragpickers (the name by which garbage
collectors are popularly known in India), it is estimated, help the
Bombay’s Municipal Corporation’s effort to manage solid, recyclable waste
and control hazards of pollution, health and hygiene for its residents.
The
highly independent and industrious lot of Ragpickers also ekes out a living
by sorting out and selling a large part of the city’s increasing load of
waste. Most of them are from below the poverty line and lower
socio-economic strata and live a difficult life, earning between 40-150
rupees a day.
Remarkably,
over 80% of them are women --- mostly wives of alcoholic or deserting
husbands or even widows --- women who continue to raise their children,
dreaming of a brighter future for them.
Even
though they might sport an impoverished look, they, therefore, are very
different from the beggars that many people mistake them for. At the worst,
indeed, they are scavengers of a different kind. Like the scavengers,
however, they help us maintain some ecological balance and environmental
cleanliness, with a little profit for themselves.
What
is their world like? What draws them to an unromantic workplace like the
various dumping centers, big and small and garbage bins around the city?
What is the gap between their dreams and their reality? What do they feel
about the world which offers them only rubbish? How do they grapple with
their problems that range from bringing home money for the next meal to
running an errant household to pitching small dreams for their children?
The
film, RAGPICKERS, scavengers of a different graveyard, attempts
to explore this tenuous world of theirs and create a sensitive portrayal of
a group of people who rarely move away from the fringe. Yet, how they live
a brave life, seldom compromising on their inherent dignity!
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