Need to address the sanitation workers’ need
Sooraj Kumar, aged 23, lives with his family of 8 members in Ramnagar, Unnao in India. He has been working as a sanitation worker in private agency and his father is working under the contractor. With both of their income, the family is managing to live their life.
With the spreading of global pandemic coronavirus, the entire communities in the world are adversely affected. India was not the exception. Government of India has also imposed lockdown leading to closure of all the medium to earn. The low-income families in the entire city hit the most. The community of the sanitation workers faced the same. Sooraj recalled, our community faced the situation with lots of courage. I always had a fear in mind, what if I get infected with the coronavirus! Who will take care of my family and the children! Who will feed them!
Along with all such mental stress, Sooraj had to go for his work. He had to visit the infected families in the city for sanitization. The risky part is: without safety measures – No PPE kit, no masks and gloves to protect himself, as the authority has not provided them with the safety kits. However, realizing the need of using safety kits, Sooraj managed to buy some masks and gloves for his personal use. Despite of his hard work during such a crucial situation, he was not receiving his payment on time which has definitely increased his tension in managing the household expenses. Sooraj stated, some of my co-workers, though being the corona warrior and had served during the hard time, after being tested positive were not even received any kind of government relief or facility from the authority, instead they faced the insolent behaviour from the officers. Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Rules, 2013, (under section 4 and 5 of the rules) mandates that the person getting the job done must provide workers with ‘protective gear’.
Despite the efforts from civil society organizations and activists, the authority failed to address the need of the frontline workers – the actual corona warriors, specifically the marginalized sanitation workers.
With the spreading of global pandemic coronavirus, the entire communities in the world are adversely affected. India was not the exception. Government of India has also imposed lockdown leading to closure of all the medium to earn. The low-income families in the entire city hit the most. The community of the sanitation workers faced the same. Sooraj recalled, our community faced the situation with lots of courage. I always had a fear in mind, what if I get infected with the coronavirus! Who will take care of my family and the children! Who will feed them!
Along with all such mental stress, Sooraj had to go for his work. He had to visit the infected families in the city for sanitization. The risky part is: without safety measures – No PPE kit, no masks and gloves to protect himself, as the authority has not provided them with the safety kits. However, realizing the need of using safety kits, Sooraj managed to buy some masks and gloves for his personal use. Despite of his hard work during such a crucial situation, he was not receiving his payment on time which has definitely increased his tension in managing the household expenses. Sooraj stated, some of my co-workers, though being the corona warrior and had served during the hard time, after being tested positive were not even received any kind of government relief or facility from the authority, instead they faced the insolent behaviour from the officers. Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Rules, 2013, (under section 4 and 5 of the rules) mandates that the person getting the job done must provide workers with ‘protective gear’.
Despite the efforts from civil society organizations and activists, the authority failed to address the need of the frontline workers – the actual corona warriors, specifically the marginalized sanitation workers.