PESHAWAR, Oct 31: Hundreds of Afghan child scavengers, wandering in the city, are exposed to dangerous diseases, a survey conducted by Dawn reveals.

It has been learnt that a large number of scavengers found in the Peshawar city and cantonment areas are children of poor Afghan refugees. Elderly Afghan men and women are also seen searching through waste for items they can use, on the roads and streets. However, Afghan children of different age groups have outnumbered the elderly ones.

The survey revealed that poverty, misery and unemployment of the Afghan refugee families are the main factors which have compelled their children to become scavengers and, thus, earn earn sometthing to keep their and their parents’ bodies and souls together.

Information gathered through interviews with scavengers and people in medical profession, revealed that the unhygienic nature of their job exposes the scavengers to diseases like malaria, jaundice, tetanus, diarrhoea, etc.

The scavengers come mainly from kutcha abadis and poor localities of the city like kacha Garhi, Nasir Bagh, Tehkal and the Danishabad area of the city. Living in inhuman conditions, they leave their homes early in the morning and roam the streets and roads till evening to earn their livelihood..

Their activity is not confined to some particular localities as one can see the scavengers all over the city. However, majority of them can be found in the streets of University Town, Shaheen Town and the Ittehad Colony. They choose these areas because of the chances of finding good quantity of recyclable items in the waste there —and therefore higher income.

Awal Khan, 17, a scavenger, said that majority of their colleagues preferred to work in those areas where hospitals, clinical laboratories and maternity homes were situated. The waste , related to health activities contained more recyclable contents than other solid waste found elsewhere in the city, he said.

Besides, Awal added, wealthy residents of posh areas also generated a large quantity of garbage containing all sorts of waste which could fetch a large amount of money.

Dr Farhad Khan, public relations officer, Khyber Teaching Hospital, told Dawn that the hospital administration had banned the entry of scavengers in order to keep them away from hazardous hospital waste.