Life is a Honeymoon: Chintan Means "Concern"

1/7/2011
Yesterday (Thursday) we started the morning a bit later. It was nice to have some time to enjoy breakfast and socialize as a group! Late morning we went to Chintan, which means Concern in English. Chintan is a non-government organization (NGO) that was started due to the fact that impoverished people were picking recyclables out of garbage on the streets. The people who work for Chintan make $90 per month. They run an operation where they move garbage in and literally pick electronic waste and other recyclables out with their bare hands. They weren’t wearing gloves! They SIFT through the garbage, pile by pile. It was humbling to see, and if you’ve ever had a hard day at work, it’d be good to think of these workers and what they do every day.

It was also neat to see how hard they work. They don’t have much, but they weren’t begging for money or food from us. They just continued to work at their jobs. Some of the people are in charge of heavier labor like transporting boxes/bags in on carts, heaving it over their shoulders or pulling a huge cart strapped around their waste. It was like a small community - they seemed to all get along and there was even a small café on the street where some were enjoying a small lunch. There were dogs (of course) and some children. I really enjoyed this visit and it was neat to get away from the beaten path of business and see how a small community of workers like this operates and what their lives are like. Here are some pictures from the experience:

Packages of waste moved in to be sorted (above); a black spot of ashes where people burned garbage to start a fire to keep warm (below). All over the city, small fires of garbage are started on the sidewalks/streets for the homeless to keep warm. Saturday the high was 53, low was 39 degrees. And they don't have heat!

A puppy sleeping in Chintan on a stack of packages (above); sign for booking scooters to transport packages (below)

Scooters for transport (above); passenger train (below)

Chintan workers sifting through garbage piles for e-waste and other recyclables (above). They work very hard for $90 per month; A brick house near Chintan (below). This house is actually very sturdy compared to many.

Recycle sign outside of Chintan (above), writing is in Hindi; piles of garbage waiting to be sifted through (below)

Me at the Chintan sign (above); packages of fruits and vegetables for transport in a neighborhood nearby Chintan (below)

Gate to Chintan (above); Puppy and its Mama (below)

Transport/manual worker near Chintan (above); Packages for transport - very common on Indian streets (below)

Cows are sacred to Hindus, so not eaten, but used for hauling cargo and often seen roaming the streets. Cows are all owned by someone (above); Small houses in a village on our drive back to the hotel (below)