> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.opendemocracy.net/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Not a pretty picture - Part 2 - URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/article-1752jsp/ - Published: 2004-02-18T00:02:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-04-17T11:12:51.000Z - Author: Sudharak Olwe - Tags: #en, #Migrated, #Import 2026-04-09 19:08, #ImagesUploaded ![A Mumbai street cleaner up to his neck in a drain (Photo © Sudharak Olwe 2003)](https://www.opendemocracy.net/content/files/2026/04/1-intro_6G6zoLO-1776424225809.jpg) A Mumbai street cleaner up to his neck in a drain (Photo © Sudharak Olwe 2003) See [Part 1](https://www.opendemocracy.net/articles/View.jsp?id=1742) of Sudharak Olwe’s photo essay from Mumbai. *There are 30,000 conservancy workers employed by the Greater Bombay Municipal Corporation. These workers pick up our garbage, sweep our streets, clean our gutters, load and unload the garbage trucks and work on dumping grounds.* Not a pretty picture *is a photo study of their living hell. It seeks to understand how and why an entire workforce gets so shrouded in hopelessness and despair that the workers come to despise not only their work but themselves as well.* There are five dumping grounds on the eastern and western edges of the city. The stench is unbearable. The garbage that the workers rake out includes animal carcasses, food remains, steel wires, hospital waste, jagged pieces of wood, pipes, stones, broken glass, blades... The dumping grounds are now filled to capacity. In fact, they are over filled. This makes the workers’ job even more physically demanding. And even more hazardous. ![An animal carcass at one of Mumbai's dumping grounds (Photo © Sudharak Olwe 2003)](https://www.opendemocracy.net/content/files/2026/04/9_t3m03C5-1776424225839.jpg) An animal carcass at one of Mumbai's dumping grounds (Photo © Sudharak Olwe 2003) ![Refuse is loaded onto trucks and taken to the dumping grounds (Photo © Sudharak Olwe 2003)](https://www.opendemocracy.net/content/files/2026/04/23_B1RBvKR-1776424225860.jpg) Refuse is loaded onto trucks and taken to the dumping grounds (Photo © Sudharak Olwe 2003) Rubbish is taken to the dumping grounds by truck ![A sweeper sorting waste (Photo © Sudharak Olwe 2003)](https://www.opendemocracy.net/content/files/2026/04/10_dr4Crug-1776424225848.jpg) A sweeper sorting waste (Photo © Sudharak Olwe 2003) A sweeper sorting waste ![Garbage spilling out of a truck (Photo © Sudharak Olwe 2003)](https://www.opendemocracy.net/content/files/2026/04/11_GqXzGmi-1776424225904.jpg) Garbage spilling out of a truck (Photo © Sudharak Olwe 2003) Garbage spilling out of a truck ![Mumbai's waste ground (Photo © Sudharak Olwe 2003)](https://www.opendemocracy.net/content/files/2026/04/12_JD4n67j-1776424225962.jpg) Mumbai's waste ground (Photo © Sudharak Olwe 2003) Mumbai’s waste ground Vidhyabai has been recently widowed. She is the mother of a one-year-old daughter. She now has a *kholi* (a room) and her husband’s job. Her “single” status makes her an easy target for sexual harrassment. That is why she makes it a point of wearing the *bindi* and the *manga/sutra* when she goes to work. Alcohol does the rest. ![A sweeper's widow (Photo © Sudharak Olwe 2003)](https://www.opendemocracy.net/content/files/2026/04/13_c70eJTJ-1776424225912.jpg) A sweeper's widow (Photo © Sudharak Olwe 2003) An alcoholic sweeper outside his house. “Alcohol closes our thinking media. We forget everything and are ready for anything. Nothing hurts us anymore...” Alcohol wastes away their bodies, ruins their health and brings death early. ![An alcoholic sweeper outside his house (Photo © Sudharak Olwe 2003)](https://www.opendemocracy.net/content/files/2026/04/14_slhVDdw-1776424225980.jpg) An alcoholic sweeper outside his house (Photo © Sudharak Olwe 2003) Bhimabhai lost her first son, aged 15, when the balcony of her *chawl* collapsed. Soon after that, she lost her second son. Then her husband died of TB. ![Bhimabhai - her husband and two sons have died (Photo © Sudharak Olwe 2003)](https://www.opendemocracy.net/content/files/2026/04/15_j5MHfDH-1776424226002.jpg) Bhimabhai - her husband and two sons have died (Photo © Sudharak Olwe 2003) ![Inside a 'kholi' (Photo © Sudharak Olwe 2003)](https://www.opendemocracy.net/content/files/2026/04/16_owThnVt-1776424226020.jpg) Inside a 'kholi' (Photo © Sudharak Olwe 2003) Inside a ‘kholi’ ![A street cleaner's family (Photo © Sudharak Olwe 2003)](https://www.opendemocracy.net/content/files/2026/04/17_bWbZ45v-1776424226020.jpg) A street cleaner's family (Photo © Sudharak Olwe 2003) A street cleaner’s family An abused family - by the time the worker reaches home, alcohol has turned him into a tormentor, a crazed demon who abuses and beats his wife and children. ![An abused family (Photo © Sudharak Olwe 2003)](https://www.opendemocracy.net/content/files/2026/04/18_khzH8PX-1776424226061.jpg) An abused family (Photo © Sudharak Olwe 2003) One of the “perks” of the job is getting a *kholi*. These two families - the one sitting and the other standing - live in the same 10 foot by 12 foot room. This is not uncommon. In many *kholis* a line drawn on the ground demarcates each family’s territory. These two families have not spoken to each other in eight years. The fight is about who the rightful owner of the *kholi* is - the widow or the brother. ![Inside a disputed 'kholi' (Photo © Sudharak Olwe 2003)](https://www.opendemocracy.net/content/files/2026/04/19_WqF2fCO-1776424226090.jpg) Inside a disputed 'kholi' (Photo © Sudharak Olwe 2003) Ramesh Haralkar with children of conservancy workers. Haralkar worked for 8 years as a street cleaner. "My struggle is to try and motivate children not to become like their parents. They have to educate themselves if they want to climb out of hell." Haralkar managed to get access to two rooms in a BMC school in Bombay where children can go to study seven days a the week. Three hundred children come to the evening classes. A tiny ray of hope. ![Ramesh Haralkar with children of conservancy workers (Photo © Sudharak Olwe 2003)](https://www.opendemocracy.net/content/files/2026/04/22_pRJSHXS-1776424226098.jpg) Ramesh Haralkar with children of conservancy workers (Photo © Sudharak Olwe 2003) *All photographs © Sudharak Olwe 2003\. Not to be used without written permission.*