Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group

Chintan Program

Chintan is one of the few organizations working with both children and junk dealers to support child education and to ultimately remove children from the hazardous risks of waste picking. Chintan currently runs a series of programs including education for waste-picking children, legal protection for waste recyclers, right to citizenship, and community waste resource centers.

Operating out of four centers in and around New Delhi, Chintan works largely with Muslim communities and in households run by single mothers. By engaging both the mothers and the junk dealers in dialogue, Chintan involves the entire community in addressing the issue of child labor to ensure a community-based solution that is supported by all stakeholders.

Why the need?

Over a million people in India, many of them children, are involved in waste picking. In Delhi alone, there are an estimated 30,000 waste-picking children. A study conducted by the National Labor Institute found waste picking to be the fourth-largest job for street children in Delhi.

Children usually become involved in waste picking through their families or by living near a waste site or dumpster. Many of families need the small income brought in by their children picking waste just to survive, so there is often no alternative for these children.

The health risks posed by this occupation are considerable, especially for children, who are more vulnerable than adults to occupational hazards such as exposure to airborne contaminants, chemical absorption and burns, and long-term physical disabilities. Children involved in waste picking often suffer from diarrhea, lack of sleep, dehydration, scabies, typhoid, and malaria.

How Team Efforts Translate to Impact

All funds will support the No Children in Bins Program, an alternative school for waste-picking children with flexible hours so that the children can receive and education while continuing to receive an income from waste-picking. 200 children, 3 - 14 years old attend Chintan's after school programs. Funds will provide teacher salaries and learning materials.

How Chintan Creates Sustainable Global Change

Chintan works with the entire community that is affected by waste-picking. Their program and advocacy focuses on children, families and junk dealers  in the community to address and find solutions for the many complicated problems of waste-picking.

*Photos courtesy of Amanda Gelender