Talk to the garbage collector, sweeper and night guard of your locality. Find out their names and ages,
educational status, place of residence, monthly income, how they are treated by the people for whom they
work, how many children they have, whether the children are sent to school, and the facilities provided
to them. On the basis of the information gathered prepare a report. It would be nice if you could take a
photograph with the person interviewed. Be sure to be sensitive and avoid asking offensive questions.
Answers
Answer:
Every day we produce tonnes of organic waste – banana peels, potato skins, egg shells, and wasted food – that all get dumped into the dustbin. Most of us give no second thought to where this garbage is going, let alone the people who come to whisk it out of our lives.
A candid chat with the group of garbage collectors doing their rounds in Green Glen Layout, Bellandur every morning, offered a peek into their daily encounters. They were immensely grateful for even the chilled bottle of water given to them as they willingly talked of their day-to-day battles.
The men and boys reside at Kaikondrahalli, where they wake each morning at half past five and make their way to the mustering point near Total Mall, where they are required to assemble before they start their rounds. Their attendance is recorded through a group photograph, after which they begin their familiar route, with nothing but a cup of chai to keep them going.
“Who will give us breakfast so early in the morning?” is 35-year-old Jaffer’s response to how they cope with their empty stomachs until the afternoon. The group goes from apartment to apartment in the community, collecting their sorted green waste and reject waste. As instructed, they do not collect waste that has been mixed together, telling uncooperative apartments to ensure they follow the segregation rules if they wish to have their garbage collected.
As anyone can guess, this is not a pleasant job to do, but the lack of amenities provided to them exponentially increases its difficulty and how unhygienic it is. No gloves or appropriate shoes have been provided to the group, and they were left with no option but to sort through the stinking mass of garbage barehanded, and climb into it with just a ragged pair of canvas shoes.