Life amid waste and hardship

Sristi Akter, 30, from an impoverished family in Char Kalibari area of Mymensingh city, was married off at an early age. A few years after her son was born, her husband left her, leaving her facing a bleak future. To earn a living while caring for her son, Sristi tried various ways, but nothing worked out.

For the past several years, she has been collecting trash from Char Kalibari Moylakanda, an open waste dumping station of Mymensingh City Corporation, while her 14-year-old son works as an assistant to a mason.

"I earn Tk 200–250 on average daily by collecting trash and selling it to scrap vendors in the area. Considering the hours of effort sorting discarded items that are often risky and hazardous, the earning is hardly enough. But what else can I do?" she said.

Sristi is among some 40 women from Char Kalibari who collect trash to support their families.

Sahara Khatun, 40, a mother of three, faces similar hardships and ended up collecting trash from the dumping station as her only means of survival.

Asma Akter, 45, another woman doing the same work, said she can earn a maximum of Tk 8,000 a month.

Talking to this correspondent, the women said they collect discarded items such as plastic packets, disposable syringes, saline sets, needles, and broken glass or metal shards, working for hours under the open sky. They often get hurt by sharp objects due to the lack of safety gear like gloves and have to take tetanus injections.

Dr Ranjan Kumar Majumder, a retired medicine specialist, said there is a serious risk in collecting trash without safety gear. The collectors may contract various air-borne and infectious diseases like asthma, diarrhoea, allergies, and eye irritation, he warned.

Contacted, Mohabbat Ali, conservation inspector of MCC, said around 500 tonnes of waste, including five tonnes of medical waste, are generated in the city daily.

Terming the job of collecting trash "risky and hazardous", Ali said they recently took an initiative to provide the women with gloves and masks for their safety. "We have already prepared a list of some 40 women involved in trash collection to bring them under a safety net. We are also considering financial support as their work assists us," the official added.