Rag Pickers
Who are ragpickers?


Hope Children's Home (Prathyasa Bal Bhavan) exists to care for needy and underprivilaged children irrespective of caste or creed and to provide for their total development.

You will see them in most Indian cities. With their dirty clothes and smelly bodies, they can be seen sifting through garbage dumps and dustbins to find something of value, something that can be recycled. Most of them are women and children.

They live in "colonies" or crowded ghettos. Plastic and metal scraps as well other things they have collected are heaped around their dwellings. When they do not collect sufficient things for sale, they turn to stealing for their livelihood. The utter hopelessness of their existence has turned many into drunkenness, drugs, prostitution, and other vices. A visit to a rag picker's colony is a scary experience!

Their children suffer the most. From early morning on they are out on the streets. There is no question of going to school. Even if they want to, there is no one to send them. They grow up abused, in extremely unhealthy circumstances, becoming prey to every kind of evil.