MCD may involve rag-pickers in door-to-door waste collection schem

Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is launching a pilot project to allot waste management, including door-to-door garbage collection, to a private agency. There are estimated to be 200,000 rag-pickers in Delhi.It is also said that about 60,00 of these rag-pickers are in the age group of 5-14 years of age. Various NGOs had raised concern that privatising waste management would encroach upon livelihood of these rag-pickers. Responding to these concerns MCD is contemplating of involving them into the project. Policy, till now, does not include or exclude rag-pickers. Care will be taken to include this aspect into the memorandum of understanding with the privet agency.

Nearly 8000 tonnes of garbage is generated every day in Delhi and is expected to go up to 20,000 tonnes by 2020. About 1000 tonnes of this is collected by rag-pickers. This is a saving of enarly Rs. 600,000 per day for MCD.