Duty begins at Home

Long before the city receives a wakeup call, they are on job braving the chill of the dawn, busy cleaning city roads. The women employed with the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) as sweepers are up before everybody else. Whatever be the weather, there is hardly any change in the scenario.

They begin to clean the roads, lanes and by-lanes starting to work in the early hours at around 4 am and continue till 2 pm in the afternoon.

One can imagine the herculean task of these women arriving at the job on time. “I begin my household work at 3 am: Cooking, cleaning house, organising things for husband and kids to make their work easy in my absence before coming to duty,” says Renuka, one of the road sweepers.

Commenting on the high percentage of women enrolling to the sweeper jobs, she says, “We went for these jobs to improve our quality of life.” The lack of awareness and poor financial background kept them away from receiving education and hence the menial job.

Another sweeper, R Amaravati emphasised the need for good education and hurdles they face due to the absence of education. “I dream a great future for my two girls and a respectable job in the field of their choice. I don’t want them to take up this job of cleaning,” she avers.

Can one think of touching the garbage at home with uncovered hands? No right! But, here these women sweepers collect filth with bare hands when they aren’t enough gloves and slippers provided. Due to health concerns, a few of them purchased gloves on their own, after a long wait for the officials to supply them. They appeal to the GHMC authorities to be considerate of their health issues.

If they fall sick, life for them becomes miserable. Out of their monthly income of Rs 14,500 they would lose Rs 500 per day if they fail to attend to the duty.

When day to day life itself is in question, it is beyond imagination of their condition if they meet with an accident while on duty. They hardly have any support for medical care. They want the government to bear medical expenses in case anyone of them sustains injuries and compensation in case of death.

A few days back, one of the sweepers, Shanthama, sustained a knee injury after a speeding vehicle hit her while working. She didn’t receive enough help from the government. Apart from that they appeal to the government to construct homes. Sathyama, who has been battling with poverty ever since her husband passed away, is unable to pay high rents.

Another big problem these smalltime workers face is at the time of nature’s call. “We are not allowed by security guards to use washroom inside apartments, and we have no where to go to use a toilet,” the sweepers added. It is high time the GHMC took initiative to build washrooms for them which could also be used by women at large.

After all, these too are the working force  amongst women who dared to come out of homes to support families and be financially independent.

By: Sushma Nagaraju