Republic Day of our country was celebrated by Janvikas Society with Rag Pickers on 26th Janurary 2016. Six hundred Rag Pickers, some working at dumping ground and others from the neighboring slums gathered at Devguradia for the flag hoisting. Mr. Jhaganlal Ajnar (85) a waste picker himself was the chief guest of the program and hoisted the national flag. He has been working in the dumping ground for past 25 years.
Children presented cultural programs. Mr. Raghavendra Tivari and team presented a Street Play on the theme "Save the Girl Child". Mr. Rajendra Rathor, from Indore Municipal Corporation who is directly in charge of solid waste management of Indore city visited the place and interact with the Rag Pickers. He assured that he would do everything possible to integrate rag pickers into solid waste management project of municipal corporation and to avail them government social security schemes. Mr. Rathore also inaugurated the Mobile Medical Service initiated by Janvikas for the rag pickers. Rag Pickers, both men and women, danced to the tunes of traditional folk songs and returned home after a sumptuous meal.
We owe much to this group of people who silently doing a great job of keeping our city clean by picking up the waste from the streets, the real heroes of "Swatch Bharat Abhiyan". May the nation wake up to see the contribution the illiterate rag pickers make by collecting, segregating, and recycling the waste generated by the literate of our nation.
Jai Hind, Jai Bharat......
Fr. Roy Thomas, svd.
