Barely 15km east of Delhi’s centre lie the nondescript Shastri Park and Seelampur neighbourhoods. Not a long distance by the Capital’s standards, yet worlds away from the swachh (clean) bylanes and tree-lined avenues of Lutyens’ Delhi.
Over the last few years, Shastri Park and Seelampur have become a graveyard of a peculiar sort, and their residents ‘gravediggers’. Most people in the neighbourhood make their living from the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) business. It’s estimated that there are at least 4,000 illegal e-waste recycling units located here. Not only do the city’s discarded computers come to die here, but they also arrive from the rest of the country and from as far as the US, South Korea and Australia. Appliances like outmoded washing machines and televisions also add to the bulk.
Most people in the business — whether they work independently or with small traders — earn about ₹200 per day. It’s a perilous life, especially for children whose nimble fingers sort through heaps of scrap, which are replenished every day. The smoke generated by burning e-waste, for instance, has been known to cause asthma, skin diseases, kidney damage, hormonal imbalance, and even cancer. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), health risks connected to e-waste arise from direct contact with harmful materials such as lead, cadmium and chromium.
The risks notwithstanding, for many like 21-year-old Mohammad Shafi, this is the only means of survival, the conduit to a brighter future. “I have been in this business from a very young age,” he says, “but I’m doing my graduation through an open university now, and once I complete it, hopefully I can build a better life for myself, move away from here.”
Photos: Kamal Narang