Kuppaiah (name changed) sways in inebriated condition as he pushes the rickety wheelbarrow to the opening of a manhole. He goes on like clockwork, lifts sewage debris with bare hands. The stench is repulsive, but he performs his task diligently, lifting the waste into the barrow and moving it to a bin nearby.
This seems to be the plight of people like Kuppaiah, who perform such menial jobs to meet their ends meet, and sanitation workers employed by the municipal corporation. Unmindful of the health risks associated with it, the workers carry on with the jobs without any protective gear. Interestingly, the civic body provides the protective equipment, but the workers do not use them for various reasons.
“We have been provided with protective equipment like gloves and boots, but lifting garbage with bare hands makes the work easier. The equipment impedes our work,” says a sanitation worker. These observations were nonchalantly reiterated by their supervisor, who maintained that several of them (sanitation workers) refused to wear protective gears citing a multitude of reasons.
Municipal Corporation of Tirupati (MCT) Commissioner T. Sakala Reddy says: “We will organise programmes to highlight ill-effects of such practices and also procure more protective equipment,” he maintained.
