Miserable Lives Of Environmentalists

India is a country that nature has endowed with great beauty. There are huge mountains of wastes near every big city. This is the garbage that comes from our home in small quantities and which we throw away carelessly. According to ministry of urban development, the quantity of waste produced in our cities everyday is 1.6 lakh metric tonnes. This waste consist of various things. The municipalities of our cities pick up the garbage and dump it at places which are known as dumping grounds. These dumping grounds are either within the city limits or in the rural areas adjoining the city. Those dumping grounds are spread over thousands of acres in our country. Around 13 to 15 lakh people work with the wastes generated in the cities, in which most of them are women. These people have to work in the inhuman conditions. There’s fear of various kinds of diseases due to working without any protection. Society looks down upon this work. Police and municipality consider them to be criminals. Both their lives and jobs are difficult yet their work is not appreciated.

The way environmentalists started their job

When these people started the work as environmentalists, they led a dog’s life. They pick up paper, glass, metals and have to fight with dogs, rats and mice. They have to suffer dog bites too. After doing all that, they sell the waste which is gathered to earn a living. The rich people come in the cars and throw the wastes without caring about it went into the container or not. They would throw it from a distance because it stinks. People call these environmentalists as thieves but they were the one who would clean their city. The police harasses them too. Police arrest them when accused of stealing. Everyone would look at them with a suspicion. We should respect them because they clean our city and we are the one who should be blamed for this.

We to be blamed

Whenever we travel abroad, we realize why is it not so clean in our country? Although our country has very beautiful places but we have made our country. People who like cleanliness have to live in dirty conditions. What mystery is this? Could it be because our country is poor? Are we unable to spend money on cleaning up? Our municipalities spend a huge part of their budget on waste disposal. It's not a small amount. In the city of Mumbai, municipality spends 2300 crores annually on waste disposal.