Media Release

Mangaluru, Aug 26: The COVID-19 lockdown was one of the most unprecedented phenomena to occur in our living memory. The entire world came to a standstill in its efforts to fight the rapid spread of the coronavirus pandemic. All economic activity was frozen and people in the lowest strata of society were left to the mercy of public charity. The government, as well as many voluntary organizations, came forward to provide succour to the poor and those who were stranded or left without any means of survival.

City-based APD Foundation, in association with its partner organization Hasiru Dala, rose to the occasion, by mobilizing individual and institutional donations and provide relief to people in distress, especially the informal and daily wage working communities. Hasiru Dala (the 'Green Force') is a social impact organization that focuses on justice for waste pickers through interventions co-created with the waste pickers, in the areas of identity rights, access to family education, healthcare, housing, skill development, market and employment access, and multi-tier policy advocacy. APD Foundation and Hasiru Dala had entered into a joint agreement last year to undertake wide-ranging activities including waste picker organizing and addressing the marine litter.

APD Foundation and Hasiru Dala worked to provide relief to the distressed during the COVID-19 lockdown that included waste pickers, other migrant workers, daily wage earners and homeless who were deprived of their normal sources of livelihood due to the lockdown.

Why Waste Pickers

A small tier II city like Mangaluru produces about 300 tons of waste every day. Much of this waste is unprocessable and is dumped into dump yard which is toxic hotspots from an ecological point of view. A sizeable portion of the urban waste also gets drained into water bodies like rivers and the oceans, thereby polluting these sources of life.

In this context, waste pickers play a vital role in reducing the burden of waste on the civic waste disposal system. They recover recyclables from garbage dumps and through their labour they sort, grade and send it to the recycling industry. In addition, they keep the streets clean and reduce the cost of collection and transportation of waste to the local body.

Unfortunately, there is no recognition for their contribution and waste pickers are often looked down upon. The World Bank states that about the livelihood of about 1% of the population in urban areas’ comes from waste. Most of them come from Dalit communities and OBCs and face discrimination. Many in Mangaluru are also homeless and have no access to any social security or identity proof. They risk their lives even during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to make a daily living through waste picking, which is their only means of survival.

Support provided to Waste Pickers by APD Foundation and Hasiru Dala

Responding to the plight of waste pickers in the city, APD Foundation, in association with its partner organization Hasiru Dala, organized a well-coordinated campaign to address the issues affecting them. The following are some of the measures that were undertaken for improving the lives of waste pickers of Mangaluru.

• Large family kits (to cover 1-1.5 month’s grocery for a family of five) and small grocery kits for small families comprising rice, oil, groundnuts and soap were provided to waste picker families. A total of 199 such kits were distributed.
• Prescription medicine and health support were provided to about 60+ waste pickers families around Mangaluru for two months.
• A community kitchen was arranged to provide food to waste pickers during lockdown amid COVID. Food was distributed to over 200 waste pickers and homeless people around the city for 28 days.
• Hygiene kits comprising soap, towel, toothbrush and toothpaste were provided to 19 pregnant women/lactating mothers and 63 children of waste pickers.
• Protein kits comprising five types of protein-rich dal were provided to 33 families with children.
• PPE kits were provided to waste pickers in Pachchanady in order to help them to resume work when the lockdown was relaxed. This was done because waste picking is the only source of income for their family and their safety is very important. The PPE kit consisted of reusable mask, gloves and gumboots.
• Apart from this, throughout Mangaluru, masks were distributed to waste pickers, sorters and scrap dealers.

“Waste picking is an environmentally friendly activity. Waste pickers play a very important role in processing waste and reducing the burden on Mother Earth. Civic society owes it to this community of unsung citizens to care for their well being. We at APD Foundation and Hasiru Dala are doing our bit to reach out and ensure a decent living for them. We are grateful to our various sponsors for making our mission achievable,” said Abdullah A Rehman, founder and CEO of APD Foundation.

SAMVADA Youth Research Center took the initiative to run the community kitchen daily and actively participated throughout the COVID. Vanishree B R, Dhanush Desai and Megan D’Souza from APD Foundation and Abdul Khalif of Hasiru Dala co-ordinated the effort.