In Pictures: A day in the life of an Indian child scavenger

Ten-year-old Imradul Ali started scavenging after school over a year ago to help his family make ends meet.

Once school is done for the day, 10-year-old Imradul Ali rushes home to change out of his uniform so he can start his job as a scavenger in India’s remote northeast. Armed with a large sack, he goes to a landfill in the slums of Gauhati, the capital of Assam state. Here, he hunts through heaps of other people’s garbage, searching for plastic bottles, glass or anything salvageable he can recycle or sell. Around him, cows graze on the mountains of waste that line the site. Ali comes from a family of scavengers, or “rag pickers” – his father, mother and elder brother all earn their income through it. He started doing it over a year ago to help his family.