The Plight Of The Sanitation Workers
An estimated 1.2 million sanitation workers in India (Intercontinental Journal of Human Resources Research Review, 2014) belong to the least organised and lowest rungs of a casteist society. Basic urban services often look like a far cry when basic human rights aren’t being exercised by these people. In an exclusive interview with BW Businessworld, Dr Rajesh Tandon, President of the Society for Participatory Research in Asia discusses some of the dynamics which govern the sanitation workers.
Q. What is the estimated number of sanitation workers dying in the last 5 years/ 10 years in India?
A decade long projection is unsure but it has been calculated that 22,327 deaths per year occur over a cross section of sanitation workers in India. This number has also and perhaps rightly so been expressed as a conservative claim.
Q. What are the shortcomings of Government? What are PRIA's suggestions?
Borrowing from the (preliminary) skeleton inferences made from PRIA’s ongoing action study on sanitation workers, many shortcomings of the government have surfaced just by analysing the daily logs and interviews with sanitation workers. From the initial research scoping, we realised that 90-95% of the sanitation workers (government employees as well as self-employed/private) had no idea about laws like The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 (the 2013 Act) which was meant to protect them. They aren’t aware of any schemes or employment benefits like maternity leaves under government employment and even if they are, most are scared to avail them in fear of losing their jobs.
The urban local bodies have made no effort in informing these workers their rights and entitlements and seem to play an institutionally exploitative role instead of an empowering one. In fact, basic rights like medical cover or of receiving a payslip with their salaries are missing even under permanent employment under MCDs as sanitation workers. The provision of protective gears is almost a myth and no effort to create a safe working space for these people have been made by local bodies. Even if provided with safety gears, sanitation workers don’t wear them because they weigh around 18 kilos and the gum boots gnaw at their toes. Unlike developed countries which provide bunny suits to its sanitation workers, our sanitation workers go into the septic tank and manholes almost naked, wearing nothing but briefs. In accordance with the directives of the National Human Rights Commission in October 2002, most permanent workers in Delhi of the DJB wear ‘safety belts’. While this is seen as a precaution, we realised it was more of an acceptance of murder. These safety belts connect workers in manholes with men standing outside through thick ropes – offering no protection against poisonous gases/ liquids/ sharp or infected objects. These ropes only help to pull them out should they die in the process or lose consciousness inside the hole. The CEC study of 200 DJB manhole workers found that 92.5% of workers wore the safety belt. But this did not prevent 91.5% of them suffering injuries, and 80% suffering eye infections (Quora, 2014). Life expectancy among sanitation workers, especially manual scavengers is abysmally low as many develop skin diseases, asthma and tuberculosis on the job. Tata Insititute of Social Sciences (TISS) reported that 80% of the manual scavengers die before the age of 60 due to vocation induced health problems. In Mumbai alone, a (conservative) average of 20 sewer workers die per month due to suffocation, exposure to toxic gases and other accidents.
Furthermore, while the government is focussing so severely on toilet provision in tandem with Swacch Bharat Abhiyan, the focus on behavioural change towards sanitation and a moral change towards sanitation workers is what is lagging behind.
The few inferences mentioned above aren’t unknown to the government and until and unless sanitation workers are humanised again as a regular and respected working class of our society, all efforts at protecting their rights or the environment will be technical fixes. It is essential to accept the density of manual scavenging and the lack of basic employment benefits to sanitation workers and their families and work aggressively towards recuperating them. What is missing is a comprehensive Occupational Safety and Health Act, a separate Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the lack of waste management workers occupation safety rules and regulations. Currently, in India, only a very broad outline of laws on occupational safety and health rules and regulations are available. Policy influencing institutions like Central Public Health and Environment Organisations and MoEF need to bring out manuals on operation, management and handling of sewerage, its treatment and municipal waste water. There is a crucial need for periodic health surveillance of sanitary workers to detect early signs of diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, TB, etc. among them and inform them regarding balanced diets and the risk of drug and alcohol abuse – since these are habits they fester to be able to work in the inhumane conditions of septic tanks and sewers. There are poor but still available services to treat communicable diseases, but now the dominant suffering of sanitation workers is shifting from communicable to non-communicable diseases that are underestimated at early stages and thus compound problems for them at a later stage. There is a crucial need to identify the number of sanitation workers across India as no public document states the exact figure yet and no attempt has been made to get realistic statistics on the same. Until we know the universe of sanitation workers, it is impossible for policies to be effective without knowing the type and numbers of its direct beneficiaries.
Q. What kind of precautions do the sanitation workers take in foreign countries?
Foreign or developed countries have many more procedures and mechanical infrastructure to adhere to when working in the sanitation sector. Bunny suits are provided to manhole workers in developed countries to avoid contact with contaminated sludge and water. The sewers have proper lighting and are aerated with huge fans mechanically – ensuring enough oxygen for sanitation workers while on the job. Apart from better physical infrastructure, licensing practices are also crucial in foreign countries. In Hong Kong, for example, a sewer worker must go through intensive training, after which they need to have at least 15 licenses and permits to be able to enter a manhole. Furthermore, unlike the ‘safety belt’ used in India, sanitation workers abroad also use various communication gadgets like walkie-talkies while underground on work to call out for emergency induced rescue situations.
Q. What are the contributions of informal sector workers (sanitation workers) which are significant to our comfort as well as to the economy?
There are some major factors which have led to a significant contribution by the informal sector (especially sanitation workers) to the Indian economy.
Like the formal sanitation workers, the informal workers are working the same amount of time, with no proper working hours/schedule and payment is exceptionally less and it varies. In fact, it’s almost 1/10 of what a permanent worker is earning every month. This existing ratio is due to the fact that the work is delegated and not done by the formal workers themselves.
Formal workers may still rightfully ask the authorities for protective gears but the informal sanitation workers have no such access. Even if they want gears or tools for the job, they have to purchase it on their own. With the little they are earning, they have no choice but to buy their own things for the job to be done.
Keeping aside the informal sanitation workers who are still making some money at the end of each month, the burden of the work further goes down to the siblings, children and those who want to learn the ways of the job. They are investing equal time and skills but they are invisible to the economy.
Maintaining the decent condition of sanitation and hygiene: For the comfort of our society and to maintain the decent condition of sanitation and hygiene, the sanitation workers contribute by risking their well-being on the first place.
Q. Are there any caste dynamics which govern the sanitation workforce?
As per the “The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavenger and their Rehabilitation Act 2013”, those sanitation workers who are engaged in manual scavenging should be taken out of this caste based occupation. The government has tried to come up with some solutions such as providing white collar jobs which will be open to other castes as well. But this has reinforced the vicious cycle of caste system even more.
The sanitation practices are often linked to the notion of purity and pollution in the Indian context. The ‘castes believed to polluted’ are most of the time subjected to a different kind of oppression in the society we live. The upper caste has access to education and better job opportunities as they have free access to everything. But the lower caste is shunned from better education and they are laughed upon for aiming for a life equal as the higher caste.
The job opportunities which are open to all are taken up by the educated class and then they delegate the work to the lower caste. Even though there is provision, yet there is no improvement in their life. Noted social activist Mr. Wilson Bezwada asked a very relevant question in the present time that who will clean the newly installed lakhs or crores of toilets (under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan) in the absence of technological support. Again the caste dynamic will create new systems of sanitation and hygiene in the rural parts of the country. The SBA was supposed to work on 4 aspects which also included the complete elimination of manual scavenging by 2019 but presently the focus is only at building toilets.
The upper caste is again controlling the lower caste and the informal work remains as a caste based work. They are stuck in prejudices of the caste system. Their children are also not able to come out of it as a result and they are socially excluded.
Most of these jobs are limited to men only and women have to work in households and private societies for meagre wages.
