Life in the Indian cemetery of computers

Crawling on elbows and knees, working for only $2.5 a day, children and adults earn a living on the largest electronic garbage dump in India. The Silampur e—waste dump is the place where all the old computers, televisions, mobile phones and refrigerators in the country end their lives. It attracts more than 30 thousand people, including children, who come here to look for valuable components in used equipment, such as copper.

Muhammad Hamid, the owner of a scrap metal shop near the landfill, says: "I have been working here for 40 years, extracting copper from used printed circuit boards. My children also work here. They don't go to school, there's no need. They make good money too, and that's all I want." Locals go to the landfill every day to collect fees. Some mine non-ferrous metals separately, while others work with large resellers and earn about 200 rupees ($2.5) a day.

12-year-old Sahil works with his mother in a small scrap metal shop. He says: "I spend nine hours with my mom every day getting copper, lead, aluminum and sometimes gold from old chips. The owner pays my mother 200 rupees."

The earnings of people who work at this dump depend on how many non-ferrous metals they can extract, and on the quality of this metal. Ishtiyak, the owner of a large scrap metal recycling factory in Silampur, says: "There are no fixed prices in this market. If someone has mined gold, we pay him more. That's how things are done. There is a demand for gold and copper. Copper factories, which mainly buy and clean scrap metal, pay substantial sums."

(13 photos in total)

Raashid, a scrap metal collector, poses in the middle of disassembled machinery in a shop near a landfill in Silampur.

Among the garbage there are televisions, computer screens, mobile phones and refrigerators.

Two boys are looking for valuable metals among the garbage that they can sell.

The boy breaks the equipment to check if there is anything valuable inside.

10-year-old Asif looks at small electronic garbage in search of valuable components.

Ramcharan and his friend Harish work in a scrap metal shop after collecting metal from discarded machinery.

Obsolete monitors are displayed at the curb next to the electronic garbage dump, awaiting disassembly for scrap.

Workers unload a trolley with parts from old electronics.