[Reader-list] ragpicking or recycling: from squattercity

[Jeebesh Bagchi]

On 11-Sep-07, at 1:58 PM, Rob van Kranenburg wrote:

>
> How's this for an interesting fact: "More than 95 percent of New
> Delhi has no formal system of house-to-house garbage collection, so
> it falls to the city's ragpickers, one of India's poorest and most
> marginalized groups, to provide this basic service for fellow  
> citizens."

fairly accurate. not sure about the percentage though.

ragpicking is part of a intricate network of cleaning and recycling.  
it has an economics to it.

formal forms of garbage collection by the municipality faces the  
problem of "authorized garbage" and "un-authorized garbage"  based on  
the way a settlement is marked in the vocuabulary of the city  
planners. Same with the "sewage" disposal.

But the bigger question one can ask is do we need formal (mostly  
centralized) systems of garbage and sewage collection and disposal?  
or maybe if the thinking shifts to the "informal" as an site of  
opportunity to think with other modes of doing things, we may be  
looking at the situation differently.

All attentive, centralised infrastructures will not work any more in  
many many places in the world. It's days have passed. Better to think  
with what is available than live in a perpetually deferred zone of  
thinking.

> one of India's poorest and most
> marginalized groups, to provide this basic service for fellow  
> citizens."

Well most write-ups on india dealing with the poor ends with this line.

warmly
jeebesh