Recycling

This is how garbage is recycled to a large extent in India.Each major city has millions of ragpickers,mostly very poor people who have been forced out of rural areas because of poverty and drawn to the opportunities in cities.They live in shanties and slums and eke out a living by collecting recyclable trash and sorting them out.Ragpickers sell paper,cardboard,bottles,tins , plastic and cloth to scrap dealers who aggregate the scrap and dispatch it to the factories with the capacity to recycle them.

Construction Workers

One striking feature of India on the move is the countless number of construction sites all over the country and all the new heavy machinery that has appeared in the last 10 years.The infrastructure requirements of the growing economy has spawned a lot of jobs in the construction sector.These jobs are often taken up by migrants from the poorer areas of the country.Avi caught these construction workers taking a chai-break on a cold morning in winter.These workers are restoring the facade and redeveloping Cannaught Place in preparation of the Commonwealth Games.The Games ,it is hoped ,will give a boost to tourism,sports and infrastructure in Delhi.

The Cobbler

Avi shot this picture of a road-side cobbler in his lean to,intent upon his work ,around Sarojini Nagar Market,New Delhi.The man makes a living out of resoling shoes ,selling laces, stitching together torn slippers and shining shoes to a mirror-finish.Each job fetches him just a few rupees and even though his shop is situated in the middle of a government colony with many middle-class office-goers its hard to see how he manages on so little maybe its his faith in the Hindu Gods whose pictures he has given an honoured place in his shop.

The Rose Seller

Avi took this picture one fine morning in the flower mandi at Connaught Place.The subject is Tiwari, a flower trader who along with his son deals exclusively in roses.In the '90s,before he started dealing in flowers,Tiwari worked as a supervisor in a factory in Bangalore.In his trademark safari suit,and his polished language,Tiwari is a regular feature in the mandi.