Thousands of women and children in India are forced to pick through rubbish just so they can earn enough money to survive. With no other option for work, Oxfam Australia is helping them gain some respect and dignity and realise their rights.

Poonam walks barefoot through rancid rubbish, dodging rusty razor blades, used syringes, broken bottles and discarded medicines, searching for any scrap which can be recycled.

At just 13 years of age, she spends five hours a day, seven days a week, collecting scrap to earn money to help feed her disabled father, mother and two younger sisters.

The work is dangerous and unforgiving - trawling through putrid, hazardous waste without gloves or shoes, in 40°C heat, surrounded by stench, filth, flies and mosquitoes. She is a regular target of attacks by vicious dogs, harassment from police and anger from residents.

For all this she earns just 40 rupees (AUD $1.25) per day. But for Poonam, there is no alternative. It's either this or a life of begging or prostitution.

Poonam is one of 2,000 ragpickers in the city of Nashik in India, an important religious centre on the Godavari River, 185km north of Mumbai.

Comprising mostly women and children from the most marginalised groups, the ragpickers go to the city dump, rubbish bins in residential streets or vacant land, to collect tin, paper, plastic, bones, copper, metal or glass which they then sell to scrap merchants for cash. Beatings, rapes, dog attacks, harassment, injuries, illness, and abuse are a daily reality and exploitation, at the hands of the buyers, is common.

The ragpickers live in unauthorised slums in the poorest neighbourhoods, earning on average about 60-70 rupees per day (AUD $1.95), which they spend mostly on food. With a simple meal of lentils and vegetables costing around 50 rupees (AUD $1.50), there is little money left over for housing, clothing, medicine, school books and other essential items.

For many young girls like Poonam, work as a ragpicker must fit around school, study, household chores and looking after younger siblings.

Asha, also aged 13, has been ragpicking for around six years. Her mother Alka is a ragpicker, as is her younger sister Wisha, aged 9. Her father Prabhakar gets occasional work as a labourer. Lately, Alka has been very ill, placing more pressure on Asha and her sister to earn money.

Their home is tiny - little more than a few bits of tin and a dirt floor, with a bed along one wall, shelves and a stove for cooking. There are no windows, there is no light. It is dark, damp and airless. Outside, the lane which runs between the ramshackle houses is more like a canal - almost perpetually covered in filthy water and mud. The slum where she lives has seven toilets and one tap for approximately 300 houses.

Asha heads out to go ragpicking as soon as she gets up, working solidly for around four hours every morning. In the afternoon, from 12pm to 5pm, she goes to school, where she is in 8th Grade. After school, she comes home to help her mother around the house and care for her two younger sisters and brother.

"I have no choice in doing ragpicking. We have no other income. Sometimes I have no time for study, I have to help run the house," she said. "My life is ragpicking, school and household chores. I don't have any friends or any entertainment."

However, things are starting to change for the ragpickers in Nashik. Today, they are becoming recognised as legitimate workers who play an important role in Nashik life.

Together with our partners Lokvikas Samajik Sanstha (LVSS), we are supporting the ragpickers to gain access to health care, legal support, health insurance, ration cards, education, vocational training and recreational facilities and encouraging them to open bank accounts to save money for emergencies. We provide workshops for them on issues such as child labour, legal aid, saving money, child trafficking, domestic violence, child marriages and adolescent heath.

We have also negotiated with the Nashik Municipal Council to issue them with photo identity cards which identify them as legitimate waste collectors, give them access to free medical treatment, help reduce harassment and abuse and increase personal dignity.

"Having these identity cards opens up the basic rights they have, that they haven't been able to utilise before," Oxfam Australia's South Asia Manager Visha Padmanabhan said.

"We have also helped the women to form a union, which has given them the support and courage to speak up on issues which concern them. Already they have successfully lobbied the council to introduce segregation of wet and dry household waste and overturn a decision to evict families from a slum in Ambika Nagar."

LVSS has also organised the women to take over the local municipal rubbish collection in some residential areas, which has provided increased job security, income and safety for the women, and a better service for the residents.

The previous municipal service involved two men with a tractor and wagon travelling around residential areas at random hours of the day and ringing a bell to let residents know they were collecting rubbish. Residents then had a couple of minutes to grab their small bucket of waste, go outside and empty it into the passing truck. If a resident misseda collection, they would have to keep their waste in their homes until the following day. The municipal collectors also skimmed the most valuable waste and sold it to supplement their income, leaving only low value waste for the ragpickers.

Under the new service, the women knock directly on the door of each house to collect the waste at a regular time each day. They also get "first pickings" on the waste, which ultimately means more money. The women are provided with lime-green uniforms which clearly identify them as official waste collectors. The uniforms have information and a phone number printed on the back, in case any of the residents have questions about their work.

"Some households are still wary of the system and hold back on the best waste," said ragpicker Kamala Walire who is part of a group which collects waste from 450 households.

"Each family will give 5 rupees (AUD 15 cents) to the woman who collects their waste. This money is collected between the women and divided. All waste income is shared.

"Overall, residents have welcomed the new collection system. Local resident Nair Sayitha has a young baby and appreciates the added convenience the women's service provides.

"The new system is good because before we were not here when the vehicle came," she said. "Now, the women come and knock on our door. Before, we had to keep the rubbish at home if we missed the truck. Many people in the buildings here have small children and could not leave them at home to go to the truck.

"Our project in Nashik is modelled on a similar long-running project we previously supported in Pune. The Pune project became so successful that our partners, Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (The Association of Scrap Collectors) no longer needed our financial support. With continued assistance it is likely that the Nashik project will eventually become self-sufficient as well.

Which is good news for young girls like Poonam and Asha, who dream of a life beyond ragpicking.

"I enjoy going to school. I want to learn and get a job and not collect waste in the future," Poonam said, bringing her hand to her face to hide a bright smile.

"I have dreams for the future," added Asha. "I have two more years of school and then I want to study further. After that - I don't know yet - maybe sewing."

Story written by Editor Maureen Bathgate based on interviews and footage by Picture Editor Martin Wurt who travelled to India.

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