LIVING OFF THE LEFTOVERS

Written & Photos By | Anindito Mukherjee

About 70 meter from the ground Ghazipur landfill is such a eyesore of the people living in the neighborhood. Releasing toxins and a pile of waste that has risen so high that authorities say they might have to put a red beacon to ward off and warn aircraft’s. Not only is this dumping ground an eyesore it also poses fatal threat to people around as once it rains a huge chunk of the landfill slid off crushing motor vehicles passing in the vicinity.

But this has another side story : many people earn their livelihood by recycling the waste and early mornings urchins and adolescents can be seen scouting for things that can be reused or kept as a souvenir. Children find toys, cars and dolls which they keep as they belong to such a poor segment that can not afford toys. These children either work here after school or some skip school and the adolescents are mostly schools dropouts.

Bad company and Bad environmental conditions lure some kids into addiction of inhaling spirits and they keep on scouting this dump yard in search of items that can be resold to buy things to satiate their addiction. Early in the morning from around 6, trucks filled with waste circle the area queuing up to climb atop and dumping the waste it is carrying. The summit of the landfill is full of filth, murk and stink, engulfed with a stench and stray dogs and scavenger birds looking for meals.

And amidst all these a few underprivileged people can been seen scouting and searching, it is such an amazement to see the happiness upon seeing a new truck full of dump coming their way as that might probably posses something of use or should I say reuse. Here in a picture a adolescent is surrounded by the dust as a dumping truck unloads the waste it was carrying on the summit of the Ghazipur landfill.