In my case it is very difficult to manage. Due to lockdown we have lost work and income. If it continues, we will have to face many problems. We don’t have ration cards and other identity proof. The government is distributing groceries and 1000 rupees for every family. But as we don’t have identity cards, we have not getting this help from the government. Only those who are rich are getting help from the government. We have tried to meet some government officers to request help for the waste pickers’ community, but they haven’t come forward. What they are thinking is that if they visit our slums, they will get corona. At the same time, we are also afraid.
In this lockdown we are not able to go for collecting waste, and it is not possible to sell the collected waste material.
If we have a lockdown, poor people like us will suffer a lot. Although others who have to move around outside are somewhat similar to us in that sense, we [the poor] cannot survive a lockdown. If a lockdown is imposed, about half the people like us will die because we won’t have anything, that’s a guarantee.
Whatever he [husband] used to earn in a day, 400-500 rupees, he would drink right there and then. He would spend all the money. Not just that, whatever we would earn, he would take that away, hit me, and use the money to buy alcohol. He is not drinking anymore. Nobody has any money either. It has become very difficult at home.