Waste Picker Community Rehabilitation

Learning Program for Children

Project Location: Heelalige, Bangalore

Project Execution:
One Billion Literates Foundation
An 80G registered charitable trust, FCRA approved

Web: www.onebillionliterates.org| Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onebillionliterates/ |Twitter: @OBLF_1BLit|

The Waste Picker Community of Heelalige, Bangalore
A brief
This settlement of waste pickers is a multi-community colony of migrant
workers who came to the outskirts of Bangalore over the last decade.
They have made waste picking, storing, sorting, segregation and trading in
this waste as their primary profession.
They are an informal segment of workers, not recognized by any civic body;
and hence they do not get any of the benefits normally given to this segment.
There are about one hundred families in this settlement with approximately
five hundred members in all, including women and children. These hundred
families live on an approx. 3 acre parcel of land – which also serves as their
storing, sorting, and segregation area.
All men and some women go into the field to collect waste; other women
work as domestic help in houses in the neighbourhood; and the children are
enrolled in sorting & segregation activities.

Their daily routine:

• Walk 15-30km/day
• Start early/ get to ‘black spots’ early
• Face a lot of xenophobia and social ostracization; many times abused,
sometimes physically
• While there is a law for ‘Informal Workers’, it does not get followed or
implemented.
• Bangalore generates 5T of waste/day.
 The Waste Picker Community: Problems we are trying to address
• This community lives in small tents made of discarded wood &
tarpaulin on a large, open tract of land measuring about three acres.
The tents are tightly packed clusters in which the families reside
and are surrounded by the waste sorting & segregation dumps –
usually of plastic, wood, rubber, glass and electronic waste.
• OBLF has supported them over the last 5 months with multiple
rounds of dry rations (every 15-20 days), fresh vegetables every
two weeks, constant supply of fresh milk/milk powder for children,
clothes for members of the community, safety gloves for
segregating waste, and education & awareness sessions on safety
and hygiene.

This community is staring at three specific issues, for which going forward, it needs sustained support:
• Food & Nutrition: Their earnings via the daily trade in waste has almost come to a complete stand still over the last five months – because
of the pandemic. Even with economic activity having resumed, they are facing even greater ostracization based on an unfounded fear that
they may be carrying the infection; and women who work as domestic help in nearby houses have been barred from going in and their
services have been stopped.
• Education: There is no exposure to any education for the children; there are 58 children in this community between 6 months and 10 years
(and 38 children in the school-going age of 3+ - 10 years). Access to schools is a big issue and the few children who do get enrolled, drop
out of school because of language issues (govt school teachers don’t understand their language, and vice versa; so both lose interest).
• Hygiene & Safety Practices: This settlement does not have toilets or running water; there is also Increased exposure to infection via the
handling of infected materials such as masks, gloves, etc.
Waste Picker Community – Overall Relief & Rehabilitation Plan
Short Term
1. Distribution of Safety Materials:
a. Equip them with sanitizers/liquid
soap dispensers which can be carried
with them when they go on work, or
to the toilet (open defecation).
b. Equip them with portable water
canisters – in which they can carry
water to be used for washing their
hands.
c. Equip them with rubber reinforced
industrial/protective gloves for
sorting/segregating waste.
2. Health care and Nutrition:
a. Provide milk/milk powder to each
family with a child. Approximately 60
families.
b. Provide basic food kits – till Dec’
2020 (until their vocation resumes).
c. Provide them fresh vegetables every
two weeks.
On Going & Work-in-Progress
Medium Term Long Term
1. Education for Adults
a) Sustained education campaigns on 1. Sanitation & Hygiene: Low Cost, drip-leach
Safety and Hygiene practices – using toilets in the settlement; approx. 20 community
posters, videos and lecture-demo toilets. Including driving behaviour change;
sessions.
2. Education for Children:
a) Initiate foundational education classes
for the children – to get them familiar
with learning using art therapy,
storytelling and such other child-
friendly learning techniques.
b) Build a low cost, semi-permanent
structure to serve as a learning centre
3. Health care and Nutrition:
a. Conduct a health camp for children and
women working in collaboration with a
local hospital to assess the degree of
mal-nutrition amongst the children, and
other health issues in the community;
Provide basic medicines;
Starting off Not Initiated: More study needed
 Giving children a chance at a better life
Starting the Learning Centre: September 2020

The approach road to this settlement

Day 0 Minus 1

We have been warned that our

vehicles will not reach the
settlement; so we will have to walk
there.

Walking is the least of the issues

really. We have to get our supplies
till there.

But then who are we to complain?

The community has been living
amidst that muck for many years…
A ‘school’ comes into being…built by the community
Now it is ‘their’ school
An early learning program takes shape…
Learning Program for Children
Our Objective & Scope

1. Just Start: Help the children experience a secure space, interacting with others outside of
their immediate community; and know that there is another way of being.
2. Create a safe space for children to come, play and learn; Incentivize the children to come
because they can have fun and learning via play-based, fun learning activities;
3. Provide a structure for at least a part of their day; build foundational learning and
Social/Emotional Skills.

Do all of this – with the constant engagement and enrolment of the adults in the community;
build ownership of the project.
In the medium-long term, the objective will be to ‘bridge’ the children who are of school-going
age and make them ready for mainstream govt. schooling system.

Scope:

4. Two batches of children currently categorised by age-group: 3+ till 5+, and 6/7+;
5. Two days/week to start; then extend gradually depending on our experience and the
circumstances
6. Approx. 2 hours a day
7. Meal program for the children: Covers Nutrition and acts as an incentive for the children to
come