[WSMDiscuss] COVID-19 Pandemic- Fighting from the Bottom: India's Sanitation Workers

[Umakant]

Dear Friends

Greetings! Sanitation workers inIndia who overwhelmingly belong to a Dalit sub-caste group have been facinginnumerable problems despite they being one of the frontline warriors againstCOVID-19. As being the lowest in the caste hierarchy, they have been deniedequality, dignity and justice since millennia and COVID-19 pandemic has furtheraggravated their problems. They work without safety gears and in many caseshave not been paid their salary on regular basis and above all they are nottreated as frontline anti-COVID-19 workers at par with Doctors and other healthpersonnel.  

 

They are the lesser humans and it istheir job to clean society’s filth/dirt. They cannot claim any rights as free& equal citizens. This is what has been prescribed for them under theBrahmanical caste system. 

 

What a Shame! 

 

Do pass it on to others in yourcircle/network. 

 

Fightingfrom the bottom, India’s sanitation workers are also frontline workers battlingCovid-19

Abhimanyu Chakravorty, Indian Express, May 18, 2020 

https://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-sanitation-workers-waste-pickers-coronavirus-pandemic-6414446/

 

India's 40 lakh (4 Million) waste pickers in the informalsector and garbage collectors employed by states are at a direct risk ofgetting infected with coronavirus from handling unmarked medical andcontaminated waste. 

 

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AsIndia Enters Lockdown 4, Delhi’s Sanitation Workers Still Don't Have PPE

Prabhjit Singh, The Wire, May 18, 2020 

https://thewire.in/rights/delhi-sanitation-workers-ppe-covid-19

 

While the stategovernment claimed in court that all workers are safe from COVID-19, workerstell The Wire they have poor or no equipment. 

 

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Thinkof Us Too: B’luru Sanitation Workers as Used Masks Pile Up

Arun Dev, The Quint,May 14, 2020 

https://www.thequint.com/videos/news-videos/covid19-coronavirus-bengaluru-sanitation-workers-as-discarded-masks-pile-up-in-dry-waste-karnataka

 

"We are taking the safety precautions we can. After that, it'sall in god's hands," said Kumudu before putting on her mask and gettingback to work. She is one of Bengaluru's sanitation workers, who segregate drywaste for recycling. Her biggest concern, as the coronavirus pandemic ragesthrough the country, is the pile of discarded masks they come across in drywaste.

 

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Temporaryjob, permanent hero: How a safai karamchari saved the day at an Assam hospital

Tora Agarwala, Indian Express,May 12, 2020 

Temporary job, permanent hero: How a safai karamchari saved the day at an Assam hospital


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Temporary job, permanent hero: How a safai karamchari saved the day at a...

When no one came forward, he was the first to volunteer to clean the COVID-19 ward in an Assam hospital. A month...
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When no one came forward, he wasthe first to volunteer to clean the COVID-19 ward in an Assam hospital. A monthlater, all he wishes for is one thing: a permanent position in the hospital hehas cleaned, day in and day out, for more than a decade. 

 

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With Regards 

Umakant, Ph. D 

New Delhi 



 






My final words of advice to you are educate, agitate and organize; have faith in yourself. With justice on our side I do not see how we can lose our battle. The battle to me is a matter of joy. The battle is in the fullest sense spiritual. There is nothing material or social in it. For ours is a battle not for wealth or for power. It is battle for freedom. It is the battle of reclamation of human personality. 
B.R.Ambedkar
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