Who is this person?

What is his profession?

How have you been evaluating him when you see him?

Obviously, he is a waste picker, who is mean to scavenge or reclaim the reusable recyclable materials from what others have cast aside or thrown away. They are also the individuals for whom collection and sorting is utmost for survival.

Waste picker have variation in their name according to the variability in places. For example, "ragpickers" in South Asian countries , "grab grab"( trying to survive) in South Africa, "cartoneros" in Latin America, "catadores" in Portugese, etc. Commonly, we find two types of waste pickers. One are knowledgeable about the activity of scavenging waste ,earn a steady income from the activity itself and they belong to a organized community . Another  come to a dump in search of nourishment or for other consideration . They are  mostly driven by the starvation.

In Kathmandu valley, it is estimated that there are 10,000-15,000  waste pickers and 700-800 scrap dealers known as kabadis ( Poverty Reduction of Informal Workers in Solid Waste Management by Centre for integrated development).The profession is reckoned to be most dangerous due to the risk which they have to endure. They go on picking garbage from 3am increasing incidence of many disease. Also , they are not acquainted with the term "safety" and "security".

Recently, solid waste is very important issue to be handled to prevent environment degradation .  Somewhat, it have been a troublesome in some cities like Kathmandu, Mumbai, Mexico, etc.  Here,  waste pickers are the integral part of solid waste management as they as they scavenge the recyclable matter hereby saving the municipality's  cost and time of collecting and transporting this to dump. They have been contributing  a lot in the maintenance of healthy environment .  On imagining a day without waste pickers, it's really a terrible for us.

Despite , their contribution in environment management ,the profession is despised by rest of the society. Straightly speaking, even most of us do not have sense of respect towards waste pickers. They are always viewed with the sense of hatred.  People often use some degredatory terms like "vultures", "parasites", "scavengers" etc and in Nepal they are called as "Khate". Likewise, municipalities and local authority also do not value their great deal to solid waste management instead ban them. This is certainly leading to  the frustration, confusion, rejection, sadness and loss of self worth within waste pickers.

On having a major concern as a solid waste management to prevent environment degradation , it is very important to comprehend the importance of waste pickers. They are the one, who, in spite of all dangers that they faces , clean our waste to provide a healthier environment  to live.  We broach so much about the waste management, prevention of environment pollution, and so on but on reality waste pickers are  the one to contribute in huge , though , there are very few organizations involved.  So friends, how about being amiable , how about developing a sense of respect  and how about acquainting with the admiration to those who have put their lives in risk to manage the solid waste to provide a healthier environment for our survival.