Living and Educational Conditions of Child Rag Pickers on Base of Solid Waste of Guwahati City in Assam

The present investigation was undertaken to study the living conditions of child rag pickers with special reference to solid waste of Guwahati City in Assam. A representative sample of 140 child rag pickers was selected from different areas of Guwahati City in Assam through snowball and purposive sampling. It was found that majority of rag pickers were 8 to 12 years of age and had migrated from other states of India namely Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh to Assam. These children had accompanied their parents and relatives to Assam in search of a livelihood. Hardly local children were found to be working as rag-pickers. Most of these children belonged to nuclear families were living under one roof with an average of 6 to 10 members usually residing in clusters of small slums in and around Guwahati City of Assam. The family occupation of the majority of the child rag pickers was labouring (67.14%) while 15.71% families were found to be engaged in both farming and labouring prior to their migration. The main reasons for the families’ migration were poverty and hunger. It was found that the children faced various physical hazards such as cuts or bruises on their body and were also susceptible to infections and diseases. It was also found that 90.71% rag pickers were out of school and main reasons of out of school were poverty and hunger (42.14%), lack of interest (22.14%), death of a parent or both parents (14.29%) etc.