00:00This is the Bhalswa landfill. At about 32 hectares, it's the second-largest dumpsite
00:08in India's capital, New Delhi. More than 200,000 people live along its perimeter.
00:14For the last 25 years, Hema has lived and worked here as a waste picker.
00:19I used to go to work, then come home, send my child to school and do all the chores.
00:27But for the past year, my health hasn't been good, so I stopped going to work as often.
00:32I used to work 20-25 days a month, but now I work less.
00:40For people who live this close to the landfill, even the air they breathe is toxic. In a city
00:45that has some of the most polluted air in the world, improper waste disposal makes things
00:50much worse. Hema is part of a group of 40 women who have been learning about this issue
00:56and the reasons for their health problems. They are planning to reach out to the thousands
01:00of other women who do similar work. The group meets regularly with local representatives
01:05and conducts public hearings on social, medical and environmental issues.
01:10I think this is extremely important, to have this kind of community-level engagement. Because
01:18typically what happens is that people are not aware of the risk. They are unwillingly
01:23exposed to high levels of air pollution, heat, both outdoor and indoor. So the first
01:28step definitely is creating awareness among them. And some of these awareness programs
01:34I am aware of are also providing some individual-level strategy to really adapt to the situation.
01:43Few people are more aware of the need for these strategies than Rukhsana. She grew up
01:48in a family of waste pickers and has first-hand experience of the health problems faced by
01:53other women. Things that researchers have also seen in medical tests.
01:58In these PF tests itself, the pulmonary function tests, we found that waste picker women were
02:05about 3.6 times more likely to have worsened lung conditions and Safai Karamcharis were
02:12six times likely to have worsened lung functions as compared to men. And because they are cooking
02:19indoors and they are cooking on biomass fuels or chulhas as we call it.
02:28Rukhsana and the team at the Chintan Environmental Action and Research Group have set up air quality
02:34monitoring devices across the neighbourhood. This helps local women plan their work and
02:39daily activities. They avoid working in the waste dump when the monitor flashes red and
02:45take precautions like wearing masks even outside of work. Back at home, the women have taken
02:51steps to cook with less polluting fuels.
02:56The women here use biomass stoves. But when we heard about a government program to provide
03:01free gas cylinders, we looked into how to access the scheme. We helped at least 30 to
03:0735 people in the colony obtain gas cylinders.
03:11In 2022, the World Air Quality Report ranked Delhi fourth in a list of the world's 50 most
03:18polluted cities. Although air pollution affects everyone, workers in the informal sector suffer
03:24the most. Major infrastructure projects and construction sites rely on low-paid workers
03:29who have little to no protection for pollution on the job. Their homes are also near the
03:34construction sites, so they get little respite from the pollution.
03:40Pouring cement always created a lot of dust and it affected me. It went into our mouth,
03:44but we had no choice.
03:48Construction sector workers here are also organising and retraining to work in safer
03:52jobs. Mini Raj took part in an introductory workshop run by an NGO to learn how to use
03:59the proper safety equipment. She says it made a difference.
04:05I took part in this training for 15 days, where I was taught first and foremost what
04:09safety equipment I need to protect my health.
04:15The efforts of women like Hema, Rukhsar and Mini may be a drop in the ocean, but they
04:21hope that over time they will help raise awareness and promote better working conditions for
04:26all informal workers in Delhi.
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