In India, the scourge of waste is the size of the most populous country on the planet: gigantic. So all goodwill counts to contribute to their treatment, even that of those with a disability.
In a bustling workshop in the north of the capital New Delhi, Ram Babu, 28, is hard at work. Although he has one hand amputated, he painstakingly transforms a crushed pack of cigarettes into a papier-mâché candle.
“It feels good to work despite my difficult situation,” confides the craftsman, dexterously covering the package with a layer of clay.
When he lost his right hand and a leg in a train accident in 2005, Ram Babu had given up any idea of ever finding a job to earn a living. He found hope again when he crossed paths with Avacayam.
Named after this Sanskrit word which can be translated as “picking flowers”, the program launched by the Society for the Development of Children, an NGO based in New Delhi, offers young people with disabilities the chance of paid employment.
In this workshop, wilted flowers left in temples are recycled into incense sticks and statuettes of goddesses or Hindu gods, often abandoned at the foot of sacred trees, into powder used for rituals.
“I have been working here for more than fourteen years now,” rejoices Ram Babu, who pockets around 10,000 rupees per month (108 euros) for his work. “My life has found a new direction, a new meaning.”
– Dignity –
Around him, other young people, amputees or disabled, make bags or pouches from waste collected daily by the association in the capital’s neighborhoods.
For lack of sufficient resources, the cities of India, the world champion of plastic pollution according to a recent study published in the journal Nature, are covered with mountains of waste which pile up in the open air in landfills as wild as they are pestilential. .
According to the Institute for Energy and Resources, an Indian research group, only a fifth of the 65 million tonnes of waste produced each year in the country is treated.
In this titanic fight, the contribution of NGOs is essential, even very modest.
“We collect waste and garbage in offices, homes or factories and recycle them into beautiful things that we take pleasure in reusing,” summarizes Madhumita Puri, founder of the Society for the Development of Children.
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This work also makes it possible, he emphasizes, to restore dignity to the disabled people who work on it. The last official population census available in India – it dates from 2011 – puts their number at 26.8 million.
“I no longer depend on others for anything,” proudly assures one of the workers in the capital’s workshop, Abdul Sheikh, 30 years old.
Paralyzed from the legs down by poliomyelitis, he makes papier-mâché objects. “Now I no longer depend on anyone,” he adds. “I may no longer have legs, but I can stand.”
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