Sanitary workers exposed to danger, courtesy DMC

Abhyudaya Kotnala

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 24

The death rate among sanitary workers of the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) is high due to lack of awareness among them about safety measures and their poor working and living conditions.

Manoj (27) died due to illness a few months ago. Another worker Sundaram (28) died in 2013. Rajdev (52) broke his hip bone after falling from a garbage truck last month. He is still recovering at a hospital.

The DMC sanitary workers say such incidents take place during duty hours, but corporation officials do not pay heed to their problems. It is strange that sanitary workers are dying due to lack of safety equipment. Also, the DMC officials have failed to provide any compensation to the injured.

A DMC health officer says solid waste can result in various types of infectious and chronic diseases to sanitary workers and rag-pickers, who are the most vulnerable. It can pose serious health risks, including skin and respiratory diseases and blood infections. In severe cases, it can also lead to cancer and that too at an early age.

Despite being aware of all such problems, the DMC has failed to provide safety equipment to sanitary workers. The DMC also does not conduct regular health check-ups and seminars to spread awareness among sanitary workers.

These workers are not covered under any health insurance. In case of an accidents or illness, they do not get compensation or financial support.

However, DMC officials claim they have provided safety equipment to all sanitary workers, but they don’t use it. On the other hand, sanitary workers say why would they risk their life if they have proper safety equipment.