Muskaan, Bhopal 2016

Preeti

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Preeti is the eldest of of 3 brothers and the only daughter in her family. She’s 17 years old, in Standard 8 and has been studying at Muskaan’s boarding school for the past 4 months along with her two brothers, Hrithik and Roshan. Her youngest brother Ravi lives on the street with their mother. Preeti used to attend Muskaan’s boarding school in the past but had to leave in between for 2 years due to family problems which made her constantly run away from school.

Preeti enjoyed learning and managed to study up to Standard 3 in a government school. However, when she turned 10, the financial burden was too much for her parents to bear so she was forced to drop out to help provide for the family. She started to go waste-picking with her brother Hrithik from 5am to 5pm each day and would make between Rs 300 to Rs 2000 a day depending on the type of scraps they collected.

“There was no room for school at all. I used to waste-pick in MP Nagar, Sargam basti and Raj Tilak. These were far off places and I would go on foot with Hrithik. On Sundays, my father who worked as an auto-rickshaw driver would come with us waste-picking. My mother worked for the city council as a household rubbish collector and continues to do so today.

“When I turned 15, I stopped waste-picking as I was no longer a child and I felt ashamed when people would look at me going through waste. Strange men also started to follow me

Muskaan, Bhopal 2016

around on their bikes while I would waste-pick and this frightened me, even with Hrithik by my side.”

Her life fell apart after her father died of tuberculosis and they found themselves without a roof over their heads, forcing them to live on the streets and beg from house to house for food and clothes.

“After my father’s death, I was sent to live with my mausi in Baag Mugaliya where I did odd jobs at marriage functions such as chopping salad and sweeping. I also worked as a housemaid in various bungalows and would get Rs 5000 a month for working from 9am to 6pm everyday except Sundays which was my rest day. My duties involved sweeping, dusting, washing clothes, taking out the trash and doing the dishes. However, one day I had an argument with my mausi over finances and moved out of her house. I went back to stay on the streets with my mother and helped her to collect domestic waste from people’s homes. Although working as a domestic maid was not easy, I would pick it over waste-picking any day as it’s less tiring.”

Preeti’s mother currently supports her by giving her Rs 500 to Rs 1000 a month. They meet once every 2 months and her mother has no problems with her or her two brothers studying now because at Muskaan’s boarding school, everything is taken care of from food to a roof over her head.

“I feel families are responsible for pushing children to work and making them feel guilty for not earning for the family. I don’t think children should work as it’s not their age to work. It is parents who should work and bring home what they can without expecting their children to supplement the income. Girls should not be sent to waste-pick and should be allowed to study. It’s so unsafe for girls to waste-pick.

“I remember once I went into the jungle to pick discarded plastic water bottles when a man who was pissing in the jungle told me to come with him. He said he would give me money. I verbally abused him and ran away. I also threw stones at him and he ran off in his cycle. Another time, a drunken couple tried to claim me as their daughter. They even called the police and insisted I was their daughter and wanted me to go with them. Fortunately I was able to contact my grandmother and mother and they clarified our relationship.”

Though she says she enjoyed meeting her friends and gambling with them while waste-picking, there were many job hazards such as putting up with demeaning remarks made by men who would just stare at them and injuries from stepping on broken glass and nails were very common since they worked barefoot.

“Although a lot of my friends would sniff whitener and drink alcohol, I never tried any of those. I’m scared as to how I would react and don’t want to lose control over myself. Anything can happen when you’re high. Children prefer to be high when they waste-pick because this allows them to be in their own little world, oblivious to their surroundings.

Muskaan, Bhopal 2016

“When waste-picking my eating patterns would be one meal of roti and sabzi in the morning, a lunch meal of puri, sabzi and samosa for Rs40 from a nearby hotel at about 3pm and a glass of milk for Rs30 in the evening on my way home. Then dinner at home which I had to cook. Our biggest expenditure was alcohol at Rs 6000 a month for my parents. Very little was spent on food. My parents brought home Rs 3000 each a month and it all went to alcohol. They would consume 2 litres of alcohol between them every evening. Sometimes they would even drink in the morning. If my parents stopped drinking I wouldn’t have to work. I tried explaining this to my parents but they wouldn’t listen to me.”

Preeti recalls how on some days she just wouldn’t be able to find much scrap and would have to go home with just Rs 20 and face her mother’s beatings for not trying hard enough. She always gave her entire daily earnings to her parents.

“Some days we just can’t find good scraps. Good scraps are paper and plastic while bad scraps are food waste, sanitary pads and dead animals. I would deposit scraps collected to the scrap dealer 5 times a day and he would tally up our total earnings at the end of the day. The scrap dealer was very nice and kind to us. He paid us fairly, fed us biryani often and even intervened when the police gave us problems.

“I was only excused from waste-picking if I was ill. Any other reason would end with my mother hitting me and forcefully sending me out to work. After a long day of waste-picking I still had to cook dinner for the family and set out our beds. I would then go out to play with my friends. I used to be exhausted so some days I would only manage to wake up at 8am. If I had older siblings I wouldn’t have to work though I would still have to do the housework since I am girl.

“I feel children should tolerate the beatings or retaliate if parents force them to work. Now I know better and will not let my mother or anyone force me into working. I didn’t know any better as a child and just obeyed my mother. Today my mother is scared of me.

“The government should play a role in educating parents not to send their kids to work but they should not interfere to the extent of picking up children randomly off the streets and placing them in shelter homes. Separating children from their parents is not the way to tackle the problem. My mausi has 5 children and 4 of them are in an orphanage now because the social services found them wandering the streets, picked them up against their will and placed them in orphanages. The kids were very young when they were picked up, with the youngest being around 7 years old.”

Preeti does harbour anger towards her mother for her alcohol addiction and not allowing her to study when she was younger as she could have studied so much by now and education would allow her to do anything in her life.

“My mother nags me to get married because she’s worried I don’t have a place to stay and she doesn’t want me staying on the streets with her. But I’ve told her I’m not ready for marriage. During school holidays, I’m not allowed to stay with my mother because she says it’s not safe for me to be sleeping in the open. My uncle Anil lives on the same street

Muskaan, Bhopal 2016

and he has tried to get into my bed at night and he has even molested his own sister. I’m frightened of him.

“I’m not happy in life. I wish I had a permanent place to stay, especially during school holidays. I refuse to work during my holidays because I want to focus on my studies and make it to college. Hrithik still waste-picks during the holidays as he wants money for himself but I have stopped waste-picking completely. I know if I need anything, I can easily fulfil the need by waste-picking or working. Just like the time when my father was really ill, I went to waste-pick and beg so that I could buy medicines and feed him.”