Rising with the lark as she is wont, 36-year-old Sajida was bang on time — 9.15 am to be precise — as she arrived at the Domestic Breeding Checker Unit of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, right opposite the GB Pant Hospital.
In another few minutes, fellow workers at the unit, which is at its most active at this time of the year, leading the vector campaign in the city and ensuring that mosquito larvae are taken out at source, trooped in.
After taking a few minutes to exchange cursory greetings and enquiring if all’s well at home, Sajida and her colleagues get on to sharing their myriad experiences on the field from the previous days.
“This is the only time of day when we get to see each other. Once our shift ends, we rush back home,” Sajida quipped, between her feverish chatter with her colleagues.
However, their parleys came to an abrupt end as their reporting manager walked in. It was all business from then on, as the day’s plan of the breeding checkers was chalked out, some queries of the field workers were resolved and a few quick suggestions were thrown in on how to get more out of their day job.
“This is the reporting time for DBC workers under North MCD. After marking their attendance, they collect chemicals needed for their field work and leave for their designated wards,” said the official in charge of the workers.
Sajida’s first stop was a slum on Minto Road and this correspondent decided to tag along. The slum, though unnamed, was barely different from a typical one, throwing up a nauseating stink from unclaimed garbage pile, open defecation and water collected in potholes.
“You can see the extent of filth and squalor around this slum. At times, one has to hold one’s breath because of the stink and flies buzzing around. I visit this slum twice or thrice a week.
Tell me how am I supposed to check mosquito breeding here if the settlers turn a deaf ear to my advice and continue living in such a miserable state?” Sajida said.
A resident of Delhi Gate area, Sajida joined the DBC workforce in 2007. It’s been 12 years and counting. Jogging back time, Sajida recalled coming across the job advertisement in a newspaper. It wasn’t long before she was shortlisted and selected for the job and her life has been all about checking mosquito breeding since, she said.
The slum came under her supervision in 2016, and, over the last three-and-a-half years, she has been visiting this ward, knocking on every door and making people aware of what they need to do to keep mosquitoes at bay.
“In 2015, there was major dengue outbreak in the city and the year after, I was assigned this zone for inspection. While we made some progress in making people aware, a lot more needs to be done. It is very hard to make people understand how larvae take birth inside a house.
Most are under the impression that mosquitoes breed on sewers. They store water in large containers and despite being told to empty them, they don’t. While the men, at times, comply, women simply don’t listen,” Sajida said.
While she started with a salary of Rs 3,000 back in 2007, she now earns Rs 14,000. However, the delay in salary disbursement is often a hurdle in meeting household expenses, she said.
‘No recognition’
Pushpa, a DBC worker in charge of another ward, was busy checking her list, making a note of houses she needs to cover in a week, when this correspondent caught up with her.
A resident of Chawri Bazar in Old Delhi, Pushpa joined the DBC workforce the same year as Sajida.
She said her only regret after so many years on the job is that there’s hardly any recognition for what they do.
“What I rue the most about my job is that despite sweating it out from morning to evening, making people aware of vector-borne diseases, there’s little or nothing in the way of acknowledgement or appreciation. Aap sabse pehle patrakar ho jinse mein mili or jisne mere se yeh sawal poocha (you’re the first reporter to ask me about my struggles on the job),” she said.
From being mistaken for a sewer cleaner to experiencing unwelcome behavior, the challenges are plenty and perks, little, she said.
“At some houses, I was told to clean tanks, while in others, the residents started complaining about their drains. We often find it difficult to explain what we do. Many throw insults at us, while others don’t let us in. However, some families did extend a hearty welcome to us and even offered water on sultry, hot days,” Pushpa said.
On an average, the DBC workers visit around 60 to 70 houses on any given day. Their work involves door-to-door inspection, taking note of breeding points, making people aware how to stop domestic breeding of larvae and arranging special task force if any particular zone is found to be dangerous or prone to mosquito breeding.
Kunwar Pal Singh, a DBC worker from Ghaziabad said he does his daily commute to work on a local train. A graduate in sociology who joined the DBC in 2008, he said, “When I came across the job advertisement, I lost little time in sending my application as I had no faith in private jobs. However, it is now that I’ve come to realise that DBC workers have no job security.”
Singh said he, and, some other colleagues, were promised a permanent government job, but it didn’t happen. He said they are still waiting on the day when their jobs will be regularized.
Wage problem:
A common grouse among DBC workers is irregular disbursement of salary. Both officials and field workers noted that there’s at least a gap of two months between the last pay day and the next.
“Their wages are released by the Delhi government. It is, indeed, tough to make them work and not pay them on time. They often resort to sit-ins and protests to press their case. While we understand their concerns, it seems the state authorities don’t.
Despite making several requests and even writing to the CM on hiking our budget, we remain unheard. This year, we couldn’t add too many to our workforce as we just don’t have enough money to pay them,” a senior official said.
A resident’s take:
While most residents claimed they acknowledge the effort of the DBC field staff, they said lack of proper identification papers is often a hindrance to letting them in.
Raj Kumar, a lawyer at Patiala court, said, “My wife and children are mostly at home while I am away at work. Hence, it’s difficult, and, dare I say, risky entertaining random persons who come knocking at my door claiming to be domestic breeding checkers.
There have been plenty of occasions when we were forced turn these workers away, as we were unsure if they were, indeed, what they claimed to be. I feel it’s not safe to let them in till they produce papers attesting to their claims.”