Rag-pickers, including children, collecting plastic refuse from garbage dumps and risking their lives will soon be a thing of past in the Coal Belt as Dhanbad Municipal Corporation (DMC) has initiated steps to regularise them through registration.

The DMC floated a tender on Friday for engaging NGOs or agencies to carry out the survey and registration of rag-pickers with all details like name, age, sex, blood group, address, family details, income, photographs etc., format for which will be provided to the chosen agencies before the survey.

The aim of the survey and registration process is to provide the rag-pickers better health care and dresses (orange T-shirts and trousers) as per the revised rules of solid waste management announced by the Union environment minister Prakash Javadekar earlier this year in April.

The new environment rules that came into effect from April 6, criminalises open burning of garbage and also prohibits dumping of sanitary napkins and diapers in the open as it poses health problem for rag-pickers besides creating serious damage to the environment.

The municipality hopes to finalise agencies or NGOs for the survey within a month and then complete the registration process by the end of December.

Elaborating on the plan, chief executive officer (CEO) of DMC Manoj Kumar said the survey and registration is aimed at bringing the rag-pickers in the mainstream of the society as per the Central plan in light of the new environment rules.

"We don't have any primary data about the estimated number of rag-pickers present in Dhanbad and thus we have issued a tender today (Friday) for engaging NGOs or agencies for carrying out the survey and registration with all relevant details," said Kumar. He added that the selected agency or agencies would be provided with a format for the registration of rag-pickers.

Dhanbad mayor Chandrashekhar Agarwal said that the rag-pickers can be effectively engaged in solid waste management and added that the basic aim of the survey is provide improved living condition for them.

Notably, several nationwide studies have been conducted before recognising the role played by rag-pickers in keeping the surroundings clean by carrying out segregation of garbage.

In Dhanbad several attempts had been made by various NGOs and government organisations to improve lives of rag-pickers, including the children engaged in garbage collection at railway station.

Earlier in 2011 Government Railway Police officials imparted private tuitions to rag-pickers for three months but was discontinued due to lack of manpower. Local youth, including Deepak Kumar Sao, Swamitra Gautam, Ranjit Prasad Sahu and Mohammed Jahiruddih Ansari also give private tuitions to over 50 rag-picker children of Chaigadda locality near the railway station.

Appreciating the move Ansari said, "Many of these rag-pickers are talented and can make a good career if provided with better facilities. I hope the DMC move is likely to bring in some change in their present conditions."