A whitener turned to paint the life of rag pickers in black

Aknisree Karthik

Bangalore: A whitener can be used to re-write and correct the mistakes or errors committed by us while typing or writing. But the rag pickers at the fruit market have a different meaning and purpose of the whitener.

They mix it with a cloth waste or toin rope and start smelling it. As they inhale it they get high and repeat the same. Due to this the crime rates have shooted up in and around K R Market area. The fruit merchants are facing lot of problems due to these rag pickers who inhale solution.

“We do not have any shops here. We sell all our good openly and these rag pickers threaten us with a razor or knife and demand money from us. They elope with the money while we are busy with our business. Many of the fruit merchants have hit them hard till they bleed. But nothing seems to have an effect on them. All their nerves have become lose due to the effect of continuous inhalation of solution. They have become nub to all our blows and even we are fed up with these fellows who spoil our business” said Sathya B Lazaras, fruit merchant.

All these rag pickers are in their age of 8 years and above. They earn their living by picking plastic covers, milk covers, plastic products, etc. They dare to do anything to get their solution bottle. They steal goods. They threaten and grab money from the people. The rag pickers can always be seen inhaling a toin cloth dipped with the solution.

“Even all the petty shops are catering with whiteners in and around market area. This was not here earlier. What purpose does this whitener serve here? The petty shops have started to make money out of this. These rag pickers quarrel among themselves when they get high. They take out their razors and start playing with it. They cut each other and enjoy doing that. Most of them reside here below the city market flyover.” said Joseph, banana merchant.

Even the police cannot do anything regarding this. But these rag pickers have accelerated the number of crime rates in and around city market area. Market is the apex of all businesses and lakh together of money if turned over throughout day and night. With increasing activities of all these rag pickers all the vendors and business man with fear. The vendors have to keep a constant vigil on their goods.

These rag pickers if left unattended now will surely turn into an anti-social element posing a serious threat to our society in future. Also they dare to do anything to grab their solution bottles. So other people might use these people for their own selfish gains by just fetching them a whitener bottle.

These rag pickers do not have any family or people who guide them. It will be better if some NGOs can come forward by uniting with the police department and take them under counseling and rehabilitation.