Here's one more community unhappy with the plastic ban — in this case, though, the situation has gone from stable to dire straits. The 105-odd families of ragpickers from Thane, after nearly half a century of this work, are now struggling to put food on the table and desperately searching for another source of income, because small plastic bags, now banned, were what kept the household running.

From earning a minimum of Rs 500 a day, they are now scraping together Rs 150 in two-three days, and their adolescent children studying at an NGO-run school have stopping going to help their families.