Life in Deonar: ‘Now we know how dangerous it is here’

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He earns Rs 200-300 per day. Skipping work means no pay, and he has no savings to spare for better medical facilities.

The fire has sharpened everybody’s anger and fears, but poor health conditions are a year-long hazard for those living around Mumbai’s largest, and oldest, dumping ground. On the 100-odd plots cluttering the periphery of the dumping ground, each with 200 shanties, about one lakh people live in close proximity to the dump and breathe the toxic air. The dusty streets have mostly naked feet walking on them, including kids who play in the garbage after hoisting themselves over broken brick walls to get into the dump.

General physician Dr Prashant Khetani says the cases doctors see in Govandi and areas around the dumping ground are different from elsewhere in the city. “The population here is exposed to toxins. Heavy metal pollution and carbon monoxide are the worst,” he says. The risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, constricted nasal cavity, tuberculosis and most dangerously, lung cancer, lurks in these pockets, he says.

Mohammed Ansari, 40, has been segregating plastic from waste for 10 years now, for a daily income of Rs 250-300. A Bihar native with two children, Ansari has never considered another occupation. “I know no other skill,” he explains. He does not own masks or gloves, preferring to jog through the dumping ground looking for plastic bottles without any protective gear. At 40, his back is already bent, and he has a persistent rasping cough.

For the approximately 4,500 residents who work as waste-collectors in the Deonar ground, the fire has meant a fear of loss of livelihood, but it is a fear they have had earlier, every time people ask for the dump to be closed down.

Members of the Kachara Vahatuk Shramik Sangh say waste will eventually go to another landfill and pose the same problems for another locality. “They should either integrate us into waste management or give us a livelihood option,” says Shalini Kamble, president of the Sangh.

The union has 500 members with around 4,000, including children, working as waste-collectors. Those working in the union have to be above 18, Kamble says. They are given identity cards and are the only ones allowed inside the dumping ground, but tresspassing is the norm. “Many teenagers and children risk their lives by running behind the dumpers as they enter the ground to gain access first. There are violent fights, there is also substance abuse inside. This can be streamlined with proper intervention by the municipal authorities,” a resident says.

Pre-2009, before the BMC contracted out the management of the dumping ground, norms on not allowing children inside the dumping ground were stricter.

Prakash Sonawane, founder of Force organisation that registers and monitors ragpickers, says he hears about skin rashes, infections, cuts and high tuberculosis incidence amongst the ragpickers.

A ragpicker collects about 50 to 100 kg of dry waste everyday depending on age and strength. “They pick through garbage with bare hands. Sometimes they come in contact with chemical waste from factories and suffer skin allergies,” Sonawane says.

Ragpickers also rise early and rush to the dumpyard without eating anything. They spend the entire day under the sun, sifting through garbage. Dehydration, and the tendency towards substances such as whitener fluid or cough syrups in order to keep going, are other health hazards.

Counsellor Harish Singh, who screens ragpickers for HIV, says it is difficult to stop addictions. “They cannot work otherwise,” he says.

Biomedical waste is supposed to be handled separately, but Samir Attar, a technician who handles lighting in the dumpyard, says sometimes syringes and blood-stained cotton swabs do make their way here.

For now, the dumping ground has not been operational since the fire. Waste-collectors like Kamble are at home, though some others have entered the smouldering dumpyard to earn the day’s living.