Under the heap of waste, in no time, the boy finds three apples. His face brightens up and displays his discovery to his friends. His three friends, all as young as him, stick the plastic bags into their pockets and head toward him. The three boys rub the partially rotten apples on their T-shirts and bite them.
After the apples are done with, the boys get back to work of filling the sacks with all that we consider junk. Occasionally, they take out a small plastic bag which inflates and deflates.
The boys are busy with their own activity and don´t give importance to what the passersby think. Passersby notice the stench coming from the waste more than the boys.
Purna KC, 15, has been living in the streets since he was 6 years old. He shares, without a hint of grief in his face, that his mother had passed away and that he does not know the whereabouts of his father. "I don´t exactly recall when my mother died and how she died, but I have been in the streets for more than nine years now," says Purna.
Scavenging for the plastics, he has now been to every nook and corner of the city, from the dumping place of Indra chowk to the landfill site of Balkhu. "I go wherever I think I will be able to find some useful junk that can be sold," adds Purna.
His friends too have a similar story. Dinesh Thapa, 17, Binod Khadka, 15 and Buddhiram Giri, 14, all have no parents to turn to. "We earn around 400 each day but, sometimes, we even earn 600. But unfortunately, sometimes we have to live with just 50," says Dinesh.
Four hundred rupees may seem to be a decent amount for them, enough to fund their education if they want. However, since they are addicted to sniffing glue, they spend a minimum of Rs 200 on dendrite. "I now find it difficult to live a single day without sniffing glue. The most difficult period is during the days when we have less income. I would rather smell dendrite than eat food," says Binod.
Apart from sniffing dendrite, they also smoke and take alcohol. When asked if they know the harmful effects of sniffing dendrite, Binod says, "I know that it affects the brain directly. However, the pleasure I get from sniffing dendrite is simply uncompromising. I am somewhat addicted to it."
They sleep where they find a place in the streets of Kathmandu, and get up early in the morning to scavenge for junk again. When asked if they would like to attend school, Buddhiram says, "Though I would like to attend a school, I don´t think school is a place for me. If I go to school, who is going to fund my education and my living? I would rather stay with my friends and collect junk."
All the four boys sell junk they collect on a daily basis to Dinesh Khushwala. Khushwala has been managing a junkyard for more than a decade now and it has been a few years since they have been coming occasionally to his junkyard to sell junk. "Though I personally don´t like the boys collecting junk and selling them to me, I have no other option. If I don´t buy it, someone else will and I am sure the other person is going to exploit these young boys," says Khushwala.
At a time when these kids should be spending time covered with books in school, they are in the landfills with the wastes. Children should be learning to read at this tender age, not collecting junk!
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