rendered by ragpickers. The award, with a cash prize of Rs. 1.5 lakh, is for three best rag pickers and three associations involved in innovation of best practices. Ragpicking has a positive impact on urban spaces with a weak waste management infrastructure. In India, the economic activity of ragpicking is worth about ₹3200 crore. India was also found to have a near-90% recycle rate for PET bottles, which could probably be attributed to ragpicking, given a lack of solid-waste management and under-developed waste collection and recycling culture in that country. Cultural impact Charles Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal (1888) includes a poem where the ragpicker character has a prominent role, entitled "Le Vin de chiffonniers" ("The Rag-Picker's Wine"). Francis Saltus Saltus' Shadows and Ideals (1890) includes a poem about ragpickers entitled "The Old Rag-picker of Paris". Bram Stoker's short story, The Burial of the Rats (1896) is set amongst the chiffoniers of the Montrouge district of Paris in 1850. A section of tenement buildings near Chatham Square, Manhattan became known as Rag-picker's Court, as this was the profession of most of its residents. In 1879, William Allen Rogers drew the rag-strewn courtyard for Harper's Weekly as part of a series of engravings focused on inner-city life. In the 1862 novel Les Misérables, the character Vargouleme is a ragpicker. He considers himself fortunate because, unlike many on the streets of Paris, he has a profession. "Original Rags" is an 1899 musical medley for piano, an early example of the Ragtime genre, that makes reference to rag picking, as well as a pun "Rag and Bone" is a song by the American garage rock band The White Stripes, told from the point of view of two rag and bone collectors. The Ragpicker's Dream is a song and album by songwriter/guitarist Mark Knopfler released in 2002. Picking Rags is a song by singer/musician George "Mojo" Buford from his 1998 album State Of The Blues Harp. A segment from the 1967 CBS News Special Report television broadcast The Tenement portrays the work of a local rag picker in Chicago. See also Glossary of textile manufacturing Junk man Karung guni, a counterpart similar to a rag-and-bone man in Singapore. Waste collector Zabbaleen, a group of people in Egypt who operate in a similar manner References Footnotes Notes Bibliography Further reading For a description of 19th-century French ragmen, or chiffonniers, see External links The end of