This is a fictional story of Ayaan and Zoya, based on children who live in the slums of Ghazipur, which is near now closed Ghazipur Landfill in east Delhi. Their father is a Ragpicker and both of them also helps him in rag picking. Ayaan studies on phone but doesn’t tell anybody about it. Zoya attends daily classes run by a Local NGO Chintan.

Their day starts with going to a community toilet, which is newly built in their area. Then after a quick breakfast, they start with their daily routine of rag picking i.e. picking up plastic bottles, cardboard or some metal in the garbage discarded by local people. Earlier, they used to climb up the mountain of trash, but now since it’s closed, they keep roaming on streets, occasionally fighting with stray Dogs.

But, they have the courage facing all this menace which is external as well as internal. As they daily come in close contact with discarded diapers and sanitary napkins. Most harmful is the medical waste like syringes or a broken thermometer with mercury releasing from it. Due to these conditions and absence of any hand gloves or safety gear, they keep falling ill on regular basis.

the ragpickers

But despite of all these hardships, they have a sweet smile on their face, because they keep finding happiness in little things like blooming of a flower or a rain shower or a simple sweet to eat. On a similar day, after a quick escape from dogs, Zoya and Ayaan were returning to their home slum. During red light of traffic, a child was fighting for a toy with his Mom. Suddenly, the mother noticed Zoya and Ayaan who were dancing in rain and pointed towards them. She says that you should learn something from them, you should not be so stubborn. She tells him to concentrate on his studies first and then think about any toy or chocolate because lot of children don’t get an opportunity to study in a good school like him. After seeing them, the boy also wanted to play with them but he nods his head in favour of his mom. Meanwhile, the traffic signal turns green and the car quickly moves away.

Zoya, quickly rushes to her class and forcibly took Ayaan also to her classes. Ameena, the instructor welcomes both of them. She reminds the class that the students need to tell about their dreams i.e. What do they want to become? Zoya tells that she wants to be a Supervisor of the Gulmeher office. Gulmeher was started by CSR wing of IIFLS, after opening up a Waste to Energy plant. It provides employment to women by turning them from waste pickers to artists. They give them basic training of tailoring and embroidery. Then they become proficient in making artistic products like photo frame, greeting cards decorated with dried flowers, which are collected from nearby Ghazipur flower market. Zoya became very happy, when once she visited the office with her mother, who works there.

gulmeher ladies

Then it was the turn of Ayaan to tell his dream. Hesitatingly, he said that he wants to be a Rapper. Then Ameena asks him to recite a Rap. He does so in a quirky manner. His Satirical Rap was to the point on the failure of Society and Government Organisations to manage the waste and the unfortunate condition of Landfills of Delhi. He seems to be impressed by the pitch of Daily Dump’s founder and her ideology on Shark Tank. He is also seems to be worried about the increasing case of fires and landslides in the Landfills. He warns the Delhites to think about the issue seriously otherwise tell them to face the consequences like Kochi landfill fires. He praises the waste management techniques of Indore and Pune.

Following this,  the whole class, instructor and Zoya claps continuously.

 

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