In pictures: India's e-waste village

Most of the domestic E waste from the city is collected by informal sector pick up agents, popularly known as “Kabadiwalas”. It is a common sight in the city to spot them with gunny bags or sacks and picking up waste from various neighbourhoods in the city. — Image caption,
In the eastern Indian city of Calcutta, thousands of tonnes of e-waste or electronic waste is collected annually by neighbourhood waste dealers, who go around with sacks on their shoulders. (Photos: Swastik Pal)

Apart from being the major IT and electronic hub of the city, Chandni Chowk is a very popular second hand market. From the wires to wi-fi routers, or a discarded video camera, there is something for everyone to buy.

The discarded electronics are dismantled and parts of it are extracted and sold at roadside shops in Calcutta. At the city's Chandni Chowk area, a hugely popular second-hand market, people can buy wires to wi-fi routers, or even a discarded video camera.

Chandni Chowk in Kolkata is the major electronic hub of the city. It is a common practice to use the discarded picture tube from the computer monitors to make low cost, locally assembled television.

It is also a common practice to use the discarded picture tubes from computer monitors to make low-cost, locally assembled television sets which are then sold in Chandni Chowk.

Extracted DVD drives waiting to be dismantled are stacked alongside school bags. Even though the younger generation goes to school, they get back to work as soon as they’re back from school.

Indians generate 270,000 tonnes of e-waste annually as people upgrade to latest models of television, computer and smartphone, discarding their old products.

The informal sector collects huge quantities of E-waste and parcels them off to Sangrampur, a village in the South 24 Parganas of West Bengal.

Once the e-waste is sorted in Chandni Chowk, a large part of it is sent off to Sangrampur village, 45km (28 miles) south of Calcutta.

Hakim Naskar, 40, sits amidst a heap of E-waste in his courtyard. With no land to cultivate, this is his only source of income. He works more than fourteen hours every day to maximize his income.

Sangrampur is a leading hub for dismantling e-waste. Practically every home in the village is involved in breaking down discarded television sets, computers and mobile phones.

Huge piles of extracted motherboards and PCB’S are dumped inside the courtyard of one of the village house. Life in this village for one and all revolves around several layers of E-Waste.

Huge piles of e-waste dumped inside the courtyards of village homes are a common sight in Sangrampur and many here say that life in this village revolves around e-waste.

Kochimuni, 15, sits in front of his mud house sorting E-waste and breaking down motherboards into simpler components.

Kochimuni, 15, sits in front of his mud house sorting e-waste. Campaigners say the waste is often toxic and hazardous and poses serious health damages to those involved in sorting it. But low levels of awareness and high profits from almost negligible investments have ensured that more people are constantly joining the work.