ON THE OTHER SIDE

When reality sinks in deeper, when truths become starker, when the ideas of beauty and romance are replaced by struggle and survival, then folks, I guess, it is time to move from fairy tales to raw facts, from fiction to non-fiction. I am back on my blog with my new post and this time it is not a story but an article. Hope you enjoy it.

On the other side…. Part 1

…… and the door bell rings. You get up and open the door to find a familiar face who at once says kachra. You go inside and come back with the a plastic bag or a dustbin trying to hold it so that least portion of your sensitive finger skin is in contact with it, your arms stretched horizontally to maintain the maximum distance from your body, and hand to over to the dirty ‘dirt cleaner’. Without even looking at the person you close the door and go to the wash basin to wash your hands. End of story.

Well this one begins right where your ends.

This is the story of nearly 6000 rag pickers of Pune and their union called KKPKP which are the first letters of five marathi words (I am still not able to pronounce them) when written in English. I guess Pune is the only city where these rag pickers have a union. The process described above is what is called as ‘door step collection’. But the process does not end here. The rag picker goes to nearly 300-400 doors each day, carrying a vehicle which has a couple of large bins and a big bag. She (I am using the word she because most of the rag pickers are females) separates the garbage into dry waste and solid waste. Out of these 300-400 houses most of them do not pay anything. Some do, ten (or fifteen if they are too generous) bucks a month. There are many households who do not give the garbage to these rag pickers; rather they give it to the bai who works at their homes. The bai throws it at on the road or somewhere else from where ultimately these rag pickers pick the garbage and do the segregation. This task, I guess, earns her ten bucks or perhaps the image of a better bai. Thus there is virtually a competitive market between the kaam waali bais and the rag pickers!

After the rag picker has segregated the garbage, he throws the wet garbage into a huge bin which is picked by vehicles of PMC (Pune Municipal Corporation). These are further collected into bigger vehicles of PMC and dumped at a place Uradi, some 20 Kms from Pune. Some of it is also composted in local compost pits, but only some. The dry garbage is further segregated into a number of items like while paper, coloured paper, cardboard, metal , metal foils, plastic bottles, plastics bags, colored bottles, quarter bottles, bear bottles and many others including even slippers and shoes! Each is sold at kabari shops at a different rate. The rag pickers have to pay nearly 30 to 40 bucks as the transportation fare everyday which is nearly 25 percent of their daily. The kabariwaala then sells it to bigger shops from where the goods are sent to be recycled.

I guess these sorts of things happen in all cities. But the difference is brought by KKPKR which has worked tirelessly trying to improve the conditions of the rag pickers. They do many jobs including running a micro bank.

When I went to see the place from where the bank runs I was almost shocked. It’s a small room with few computers and a few chairs. All the data is recorded in thick registers and also feeded in the computer. It is mostly looked after by a very simple looking lady named Sangita Jhon. Apart from that there are a few staffs; two of them are girls around twelve years old. There are nearly 2000 rag pickers registered in the bank. The loans are given at 24 percent per annum and the interest rate on saving is around 5 to 8 percent depending on how much profit the bank makes in that year. The profits are greatly affected by rate of defaults. So to check the defaults any loan is issued only if the concerned person can get two guarantors. You would be surprised to know that each member has her own credit rating! They also have the provision of borrowing by keeping gold as collateral. As I was talking to Sangita I discovered that she remembers the names of all members, their family background and even their credit ratings. For a moment I wanted to ask how much formal education she had had but honestly I did not have the guts to. I know I would have been embarrassed. I am so poor at remembering names.

There are many other social, cultural and economic aspects which I am not touching in this story because I am feeling too lazy to write or I was too lazy to explore. If you want to know more facts, just let me know I can send you any pdfs and word files. But they would also not convey many aspects which you have to see to believe.

Past few days have been a new experience in many ways. The ones which you can not guess are the fact that I have learnt the art of making a poker face because you do not have the liberty to frown or twitch your nose at a dirty site or at a foul smell. I have also started having much more tea and less of cigarettes. I also feel slightly more humble but then I think that the fact that I am saying this states otherwise.

I have got a few projects which are not very well defined. Basically I have to try and come up with a more profitable door step collection system and try and improve the existing banking system. I am almost clueless till now. Any suggestions???