The heart of Delhi, Connaught Place, is just a distant corner in her world that is limited between Khadar village, where she lives, and the bustling Lajpat Nagar market, where she works. But, Lailee knows how a 10 year-old ragpicker like her had fished out a bomb and informed the police about it minutes after the twin blasts rocked CP on September 13.

“That boy was rewarded because he helped the police. We will be rewarded too if we find a bomb,” says the 10-year-old. The ragpicker in Lajpat Nagar’s Central Market heard about the incident from Shafir (9), another ragpicker, while rummaging through the waste for paper and plastic.

Lailee is among the 5,000 ragpickers who are part of a programme initiated by Chetna, an organisation working with street children in Lajpat Nagar and its adjoining areas.

“We aim to create an interface between the police and the ragpickers working in the area,” explains Sanjay Gupta, who heads the programme.

“We have helped the police find things,” says eight-year-old Zaida, recalling how a boy had found a laptop wrapped in a plastic bag and given it the “police guard”. The laptop was apparently stolen and hidden in one of the dustbins.

Under the programme that started three years ago, a group of ragpickers led by one of them, visits the local police station once a month and interacts with officers. “These children often get into trouble with the police because of street fights and thefts, and are scared of the men in khaki. The programme helps create friendly ties between them. While these kids help the police, giving them clues on the whereabouts of miscreants, in return they get protection from the police,” adds Gupta, recalling how a group of street children and ragpickers had helped the police trace two missing boys after the blasts in Sarojini Nagar in 2005.

Most of the ragpickers in Lajpat Nagar are part of the programme and are residents of Khadar village near Mathura Road.

While the Delhi Police has initiated the “eyes and ears” scheme, aiming to develop a local intelligence network of street vendors and ragpickers, Shayantani Das of Chintan, which works with ragpickers in the New Delhi area, believes the recent blasts have given some recognition to the huge population of ragpickers in the city.

“It is essential to organise them in groups. Most of them are children and are vulnerable to street violence and drug abuse. We need help from the police through such initiatives,” says Das.

While Chintan has been sending about 250-odd ragpickers to the New Delhi Municipal Council for its door-to-door garbage collection initiative since last year, it is only now that the civic agency has decided to issue smart cards and uniforms to the rag pickers working in the area. “Whether we like it or not, it is the ragpicker who lifts things that we don’t like to touch. Even if they were made to lift bombs, at least the episode made the authorities acknowledge their potential and decide to give them uniforms and gloves,” she says.