Impact on Indian People

Indian Citizens

Some problems that average Indian citizens face is the stress of encountering rubbish on the streets. The garbage may pose problems with regards to traffic and sanitation. Above all that, it is really an unpleasant sight to see every time you leave your premises.

Tourists

India holds a bad reputation amongst tourists who would think twice about visiting the major cities because of the haphazardly disposed rubbish in the streets. It became apparent to me when I was met with negative responses after I had told some of my friends I was going to travel there.

My point here is that the waste problem is a threat to India’s tourism industry, and it can affect their economy even though it is not largely driven by tourism.

Slum Dwellers

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Overflowing landfills on the outskirts of major cities have become significant sources of greenhouse emissions and breeding sites for disease vectors such as flies, mosquitoes, cockroaches, rats, and other pests. The risk of contracting major infectious diseases is extremely high.

Slum communities living close to these landfills are constantly being exposed to these diseases:

  • malaria
  • dengue
  • typhoid fever
  • hepatitis A and E

Moti Khan, 30, who lives in a slum community, said “We are usually sick five or six days each month, you get fever, vomiting, diarrhoea, skin rashes, everything.”

This is greatly saddening to me because most of the people living in slums work hard as non-official garbage workers to sort out recyclables in garbage. These waste-pickers earn roughly SGD$230 a month from waste buyers who then resell them to the facilities to recycle trash.

They get by with that much amount of money to feed their families. My monthly allowance is twice that amount but sometimes I find myself complaining about consultation fees when I visit the doctor for relatively mild illnesses like the flu or fever.

A point to note is that the 93 million slum dwellers in India are effectively living a sustainable lifestyle, going through the trash disposed in streets and landfills to recycle and upcycle them into things that can be used in their shanty homes.

However, the slum dwellers belong in the lower caste of the social caste system in India, therefore having limited access to education perpetuates their low-skilled jobs such as picking waste. The lack of sanitation and exposure to all kinds of waste in their living quarters subject these slum dwellers to most illnesses mentioned above.

It is a pity that they have to go through such terrible standards of living when they are doing the country a big favor by sorting out garbage. I feel that slum dwellers are essentially India’s unsung environmentalist heroes.

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