Marwan Abubaker is a social activist working for garbage pickers and street animals. A commerce graduate, he is using his skills and experience to create awareness in households and is bringing an applaudable change.

Marwan Abubaker is the co-founder of Hasiru Dala Innovations which is a not-for-profit social enterprise in Bangalore.

Marwan says that he is working for waste pickers to provide them a better life and also to decrease the impact waste mismanagement has on the environment.

Marwan says that his journey in this field started eleven years ago when he volunteered for a community radio station, Radio Active, for community service. One of the projects he was working on was related to street dogs and related conflicts with humans. He tried to pin down the real problem and concluded that garbage hotspots are the places where such conflicts are many.

Trying to resolve one problem led to him getting driven towards another problem of street waste pickers and garbage collectors. Over the years, Marwan has worked with state and local authorities to bring awareness and contributions from residents to create an inclusive solution.

Marwan shares that with his efforts garbage pickers started gaining respectability, and even their incentives and earnings increased. They started segregation of waste at its source in the households in Bangalore to reduce the waste at the initial level itself.

Talking about his inspiration, Marwan says that getting a chance to improve the living conditions of garbage collectors and helping them lead a respectable life is what motivates him.

Talking about his achievements, Marwan says that he has rescued many street animals, worked on animal cruelty with state governments. He also created an awareness curriculum for school students in 2009-10.

Talking about the COVID-19 pandemic, Marwan says that initially everybody was in panic mode but  slowly they understood the situation. He is also glad that the vast volunteer community helped street animals survive this harsh period.

He advises everyone to be aware of the environmental impact our garbage has and how to segregate and dispose it more safely.

In his free time, Marwan likes to go to the gym, help street dogs and connect with other communities working in the same field.