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Question
Answer the following question in 120−150 words: "For the children it is wrapped in wonder, for the elders it is a means of survival." What kind of life do the rag-pickers of Seemapuri lead?
Solution
The ragpickers led a life that was devoid of all basic facilities. There was no sewage system, drainage structures or facilities like running water. Many of them were immigrants from Bangladesh and they often settled wherever they could find some food. Such was the condition that they had grown accustomed to the situation where they had ration cards to get food but lived without a proper identity and without permits. There was such scarcity of food that to sleep without a rumbling stomach was an aim in their day-to-day lives. The huts were made of mud, roof tins and tarpaulins. Children walked barefoot as they couldn't afford shoes. Even if someone had got a pair, they were surely rugged, used, discarded ones, often mismatched and sometimes with holes. But to own shoes, even as the ones mentioned before, was a dream come true. They lived in utter poverty devoid of education along with other basic rights. With the means to move forward in life unavailable to them and the harsh struggle they had to carry on to survive everyday, they usually turned into ragpickers. To them garbage was gold, not only because they sometimes found some rupee notes in there but because ragpicking through the garbage helped them survive and earn a livelihood.
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Unaware of what his name represents, he roams the streets with his friends, an army of barefoot boys who appear like the morning birds and disappear at noon. Over the months, I have come to recognise each of them. |
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