It is late evening. A chill has descended on the otherwise humid city of Visakhapatnam thanks to a steady downpour over the past few days, prompting residents to snuggle under cozy quilts through the night — a luxury L. Padmavathi (name changed on request) cannot afford. Duty calls. At 40, this sanitation worker from One Town prepares for her night shift with the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC). Her shift begins at 10:30 p.m. and ends at 6.30 a.m.
Padmavathi lives in a small group house, paying ₹5,500 in rent — almost a third of her monthly salary, which is ₹18,500. “What else can one expect in a city like Vizag?” she asks.
Her three-room house is cold and uninviting. Paint is peeling off the walls, and the floor is rough and uneven. A bucket is placed in a corner to collect rainwater trickling through the roof. Pictures of her elder daughter and son-in-law adorn the almirah.
Padmavathi keeps glancing at her wall clock. She has learnt the hard way to never turn up late for work, even by a few minutes. As the clock strikes 9, she sits for dinner. A simple meal — rice, lentils and fried potato. She then goes for her bath, followed by prayers to portraits of Hindu gods affixed to her walls.
Right on cue, her younger daughter Jyothi emerges from the kitchen with two cups of tea. This is a ritual every time Padmavathi heads off on a night shift. As the mother and daughter drink their tea in silence, Padmavathi steels herself for what lies ahead — eight hours of scooping up garbage as the city soundly sleeps.
She then makes her way to the One Town junction, wearing her reflective safety jacket and clutching her two-litre water bottle which she will have to manage with for the rest of the night. At the junction, several other workers like her gather. A couple of ‘sanitary inspectors’, the low-level bosses, take biometric attendance of the workers. The workers are then split up into groups and are assigned their duties for the night.
Perils of the night shift
Sanitation workers unanimously agree that the night shift is the hardest, more so for women workers. Apart from the usual challenge of handling garbage, they are faced with the constant threat of hit-and-run incidents, eve-teasing, and harassment by inebriated people and anti-socials.
This menace is especially pronounced in One Town region.
“Turning up for a night shift in this area means putting our lives at stake. Every single time, we find ourselves praying that we make it back home safely,” Padmavathi says.
“Inebriated people approach us at night, ostensibly seeking sexual favours. Some try to pick fights with us just to belittle us. We have seen drunks breaking liquor bottles on the road and brandishing them in our faces. Drunken youth, possibly intoxicated, zoom past us at high speeds on their bikes, sometimes snatching away our brooms,” says Aruna, a co-worker of Padmavathi.
While a male supervisor is assigned to each group, they leave after the allocation of areas is done. In some areas, street-lights are defunct, adding to the workers’ woes.
“Apart from the drunks, some homeless people also pose a threat and have at times tried to attack us. We feel helpless. All we can do is file a complaint with our higher-ups,” says Aruna.
Two years ago, a sanitation worker who was on night shift at Beach Road was hit by a speeding car, resulting in a broken leg, expensive medical bills and an eventual loss of livelihood, recalls Appaji, a GVMC health assistant.
Srinivas, a sanitation worker, says rash driving is the greatest risk that those on night duty encounter. “There are also frequent incidents like mobile phone snatching, and passersby deliberately dumping food waste in an area which we have just swept clean,” he rues.
“Many times, our female colleagues have encountered men walking up to them and misbehaving with them. Some drunken men urinate on the road in full view. All this makes it very challenging for female sanitation workers to discharge their duties properly,” he explains.
When asked if the police do not patrol the roads at night, Srinivas explains: “Police vans keep crisscrossing the area, but it is not practically possible for them to always accompany sanitation workers. And these incidents are way too frequent. We simply bear all this in silence.”
Lack of access to restrooms and drinking water is another concern for women workers on night shifts.
“We start our shift at 10:30 p.m. and finish the next morning after nearly eight hours. We must carry our own water bottles,” shared another woman worker.
Despite their vital role in the GVMC, which has consistently ranked among the top ten cleanest cities in the Swachh Survekshan Rankings organised by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), these workers endure significant stress and trauma in their duties. They call for a much-needed change in public attitudes and behaviours toward them.
Dehumanising work
According to regulations, citizens are required to segregate their garbage into wet, dry, and hazardous categories before handing it over to sanitation workers. However, many residents neglect this responsibility, placing the entire burden on the workers, who must personally separate the waste before transporting it to the Mini Sewage Farm (MSF), something which is beyond what they are paid to do. The process is dehumanising, report workers.
“People hardly bother to segregate their waste. They indiscriminately dump all kinds of garbage into the dustbins located in their apartment cellars. When it rains, the already decaying waste gets soaked. First, we have to pour out the water from the dustbins before we can even start sorting the waste for our vans. Food scraps, diapers, sanitary napkins, plastic wrappers, needles, and batteries are all dumped together in one bin. The stench is unbearable, and it makes us feel nauseous,” explains M. Kanaka Raju, a sanitation worker who serves as a loader in a Clean Andhra Pradesh (CLAP) vehicle from Arilova.
He goes door to door to collect garbage from around 250 houses, accompanied by another helper, in what is known as a micro-pocket.
“Forget about segregation; people dump used diapers and sanitary napkins without even wrapping them, mixing them in with other waste. We carry a separate bin specifically for these diapers and sanitary napkins, in addition to the red and blue compartments in the vehicle that are designated for dry and wet waste,” he explains.
“Even though we wear gloves, it’s incredibly unpleasant to pick up and sort through this waste. But who cares?” he laments.
Putting up with contempt, ridicule
Many sanitation workers narrate how they are viewed with disdain by people, due to their association with garbage collection and their backgrounds from marginalised communities.
Nagamma, a 35-year-old sanitation worker from the Poorna Market area — one of the oldest and busiest business centres in Visakhapatnam — expresses her frustration with how people treat workers like her.
“Many of us come from marginalised communities, and we are often regarded as lesser beings. We can sense it in the way people look at us,” she shares.
““Some people suggest that I send my daughter to work as a maid in their homes. That thought breaks my heart. I want her to focus on her studies and pursue a decent job. I don’t want her to face the same humiliating, degrading treatment I endure at work”NagammaSanitation worker
“Recently, after collecting garbage from the bin and cleaning the road, a woman carelessly tossed a bag of waste near the dump bin and demanded that I pick it up. I confronted her, saying we are not slaves and that this is not how workers should be treated. Instead of apologising, she shot back, ‘Em, jeethalu teeskovatledu enti?’ (What, aren’t you getting paid?)” she recounts, still feeling the sting of that encounter.
Nagamma’s daughter is a Class X student at a government school. After her husband passed away a few years ago, Nagamma has single-handedly supported her family on her meagre income. “I used to work as a maid, but now I’m a sanitation worker, as the money is slightly better,” she explains.
“Some people suggest that I send my daughter to work as a maid in their homes. That thought breaks my heart. I want her to focus on her studies and pursue a decent job. I don’t want her to face the same humiliating, degrading treatment I endure at work. All we need is a little respect. Is that too much to ask?” she reflects.
“We are indispensable when it comes to keeping the city clean. It is amusing to think that while our absence is acutely felt, our presence is hardly valued,” says Meenakshi (name changed), a sanitation worker in her 40s, who looks much older.
Small joys
On some occasions, the workers come across people who treat them with kindness. “One day, early in the morning, as I was sweeping the road near Seetammadhara, a man pulled up next to me on his two-wheeler, with his little daughter sitting in front. He handed me a bag. I was confused, as it looked quite new. Inside, I found a sari, a wristwatch and a cap. Tears sprung to my eyes. The man and his little girl smiled at me, thanked me and left. I will never forget that day,” recollects Devi, a worker in her 50s, her eyes welling up.
“We don’t even want such gifts. All we ask for is to be treated with dignity. Manishi laa chooste chaalu (Simply to be acknowledged as a human being is enough),” Devi adds.
Zero public accountability
The GVMC has placed adequate dump bins every 100 to 200 m to discourage people from littering streets. However, food waste, used coconuts, and other household trash are frequently found scattered around these bins because many people fail to dispose of their waste properly. This negligence results in street dogs and cows rummaging through the mess. In many cases, locals photograph the litter strewn across the roads and notify the civic authorities, leading to repercussions for the workers.
“We are indispensable when it comes to keeping the city clean. It is amusing to think that while our absence is acutely felt, our presence is hardly valued”Meenakshi (name changed)Sanitation worker
V. Prasad, a sanitation worker from Shivajipalem, recounts an incident from a few months ago when some locals dumped their garbage into a drain. That same night, it rained, causing the drain to overflow due to the blockage. The locals then complained to the corporation authorities about the situation.
“At around 9 p.m. to 10 p.m., drain water even entered some houses. I had to rush back to the site and clear the blockage. People were blaming us, yelling and asking what we were doing,” he recalls.
Health issues
Sanitation workers frequently experience health problems such as fevers, skin issues, nausea, and sleepless nights. Over time, many male workers and even some female sanitation drivers have turned to alcohol to cope with their demanding jobs.
“We work about eight hours a day, often putting in overtime. All day long, we inhale the pungent odours emanating from the vehicles. Even when we try to sleep, the images of dirt and litter flash in our mind. Consuming alcohol becomes a necessity for alleviating body pains and getting adequate rest,” explains Appalanaidu, a garbage truck driver.
A sanitary inspector from the city, requesting anonymity, says that while not everyone causes problems, some individuals disrespect and mistreat sanitation workers. “Citizens should remember the sacrifices made by the workers during COVID-19,” he says
The inspector recounts an incident where a member of an apartment management team asked a sanitation worker to collect garbage from every house in a complex of 25 residences. “Typically, the apartment cleaner is responsible for collecting all the trash and placing it in the dump bins in the cellar. How can a worker be expected to collect garbage from every unit in an apartment? When we questioned the management, they replied that the workers are obligated to do that,” he explains.
Need for awareness
“The government spends so much money on publicity. If they could spend some money on spreading awareness among people on the need to treat us with a little dignity, it would go a long way towards improving our working conditions. A simple smile, a thank you, and two minutes of your time getting your waste properly segregated and packed will mean the world to us,” says Devi. Several of her co-workers, standing around, loudly cheer in approval.
Published - October 18, 2024 08:05 am IST
