This organisation helped us in critical times. They have helped us so much. The government has not done anything for us except for those 2 kg of rice which I mentioned earlier. Leaving that aside, nobody has done anything. The organisation supported us and that is how we could manage for 1 month. The rest of the time we spent the money we had from here and there, and somehow managed the rest of the time.
All of us are at home only. No earnings at all. It has been a tough, very tough 2 ½ months. We have never faced such difficulties in our lives. If we had not received any support from this organisation, it would have been very, very tough. They gave us one month’s provisions, and then we got some from the public distribution system (‘ration shop’) which helped us maintain our lives.
One thing we know and what we tell others also is how precious our lives are. We have made people around us understand this.
No one came, no one enquired what is going on, how we are… how are people in the slums. There are snakes, and a lot of other problems here, but somehow we used to manage to earn at least 10 rupees. Now, even that is not possible. We have to leave our children and go. We are worried about what will happen to the children if we leave them at home and go.
Some people consider the lockdown as a holiday, like for those in the office it is a holiday. For us waste pickers it is a matter of worry, we get anxious. We are worried because…. See, we can understand but how will our children understand?