• Vijai Krishna
• Himanshu Kumar
• Sadhana Chaurasia

Rag pickers pick the reusable and recyclable waste from the roadsides, dustbins and landfills and sell these to local scrap dealers to earn money to full fill their daily needs. Rag pickers are doing this in a very unhygienic and hazardous condition. They always prone to being infected by infectious diseases, cuts, injuries, toxic fumes and accidents etc. Their socio-economic scenario is also very bad. They don’t have enough education, training and support to do anything else. This research work was carried out to assess the socio-economic status of the rag pickers and their role in the management of municipal solid waste of the city of Varanasi, India. Research work was carried out by the help of a questionnaire survey, which contains the questions regarding age, sex, education, diseases, earning, addiction habits type and weight of waste collected, distance covered etc. these questions were asked to rag pickers, who were got selected from different places of the city. This is very necessary to understand and appreciate the role of rag pickers in the cleanliness and sanitation of our cities instead it rag pickers are very neglected and avoided part of our society.

Rag Pickers, Municipal Solid Waste, Recycling, Socio-Economic Scenario, Landfill

"Socio-Economic Scenario of Rag Pickers and Their Role in Municipal Solid Waste Management of City of Varanasi, India", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 1, page no.626-641, January-2019, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1901989.pdf

"Socio-Economic Scenario of Rag Pickers and Their Role in Municipal Solid Waste Management of City of Varanasi, India", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 1, page no. pp626-641, January-2019, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1901989.pdf