India Clean Up, by Chloe G.
India, the world’s garbage disposal. But there is no real disposal happening. It is simply disappearing from other countries and becoming India’s problem. A problem, which is causing serious health issues, even fatalities. Ever since China has developed stricter regulations on what can and can’t be brought into its country, India has been the go to place for cheap and easy waste disposal. Where is the trash coming from you may ask? Well a better question could be where isn’t it coming from? Countries all over the world are contributing to this deadly problem, everywhere from Iraq to right here at home in the United States of America. In India every-day trash is not the only dilemma; there is also bio-hazardous material, e-waste, “rusty cargo ships, plastic scraps, rags, used engine oil” being brought to India.(Perry,1) This is a result of India’s government’s lack of strict regulation laws on what can be brought in to the country and how it can be disposed of. Because of this some people, who are importers actually buy other countries trash and bring it to India where it is not disposed of in an adequate manner. “Some (trash) needs to be handled delicately which doesn’t routinely happen in India.”(Perry1) Once the trash arrives in India it is sometimes burned, thrown into the ocean, or carelessly disposed of about the country. This is not only affecting India, it is affecting the rest of the world. By burning the trash toxic fumes are being released into the air, which can cause air-pollution caused sicknesses as well as depleting the O-zone layer. “The 15 percent reduction in sunlight is more than twice that typically caused by clouds and could cause temperature drops over the Indian subcontinent of up to 2degrees C. (Perkins,1) This can cause many health and environmental issues in India and around the world. Also, all of the oceans of the world are connected. Therefore by dumping waste in the oceans of India it is not just polluting the oceans of India it is turn polluting all the other oceans of the world. This causes vast ecological tribulations and tremendous aquatic consequences. This causes problems for not only the people but also the plants and animals of the world alike.
There is also the problem of military waste being disposed of also in India. For example in September of 2004, ten workers were killed in the New Delhi community of Ghaziabad while moving a pile of scrap metal which contained live 81-mm mortar shells. After this incident over the course of a few days hundreds more artillery rounds were found at about twenty locations.(Perry,1)
Except in very few places India does not have a waste management program such as we have in the US. Therefore to dispose of their trash in many cities people just throw it on the ground or out their windows. There is an informal system of recycling and reusing that takes place in the streets. Animals eat what they can, human trash pickers mainly children sort out the plastics and other reusable items.(sporkopolis,1) Because, of the poor disposal of waste there are often high levels of chemicals in residential areas and their water supplies. Arsenic poisoning is becoming common because of this. “…water from deep tube-wells was considered a viable and healthy alternative because in many areas, the surface water bodies - lakes, ponds and tanks - had become heavily polluted by industrial effluents and sewage.”(People and the Planet)
There is a caste system in India despite being made illegal in 1947. The lowest groups are the Dalits and the Balmikis. They are the people who deal with the trash problem in India. (Ligner, 1) Among the Dalits the lowest group are the Balmikis. “These people are thought to be unclean because of their work with the garbage.” Men women and children all work picking through the garbage. Most children born to parents in this caste have no choice but to become workers in this field. “Some 250 million people, -or about ¼ of India’s population- are Dalits.”
Just because the Dalits are the ones working with the everyday trash doesn’t mean they are the only people involved. Importers pay to bring the trash in because the government does not have strict regulations and they can make money recycling and reselling the recycled materials. . Many different kinds of waste are being brought to India because of this lack of regulation. Everything from computers and other E-waste to rubble from the world trade center are brought in. Even nuclear waste is being brought to India for disposal, (Perry,1) and “12,500 tons of toxic waste is dumped in the Arabian Sea each year.”(Perry, 1)
India has many problems with e-waste being imported. E-waste is the materials that make up computers and other electronic articles. Since China developed stricter regulations most of the world’s e-waste gets sent to India as they have no-one regulating it. What is even worse than it’s being brought into the country is how it is disposed of once it’s there. In the middle of New Delhi neighborhoods, child labor is used to burn circuit boards in the streets in order to recycle the materials in them. (Dutta) (Wankhade)
This is not only harming the environment by putting toxic chemicals into the air but it is cruel to use children for this. These children already have to live in poor conditions, not guaranteed two meals a day and forced to work as laborers because of their parent’s status as Dalits. (Wankhade)