BHUBANESWAR : The pandemic has forced a school teacher to take up work as a driver of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) solid waste transporting vehicle to make ends meet.
Smrutirekha Behera, a resident of Patharabandha slum, was teaching LKG, UKG and Class I students at a school in the city’s Chakeisiani area prior to the first lockdown. Following the Covid-19 outbreak, the 29-year-old teacher lost her livelihood as the school closed down. Salary of her husband Basudev, who works in a private firm, was reduced to half making it difficult for the couple to manage the affairs.
Their problems compounded when her father died and mother was diagnosed with cancer last year. “My mother-in-law is a diabetes patient and needs medicines worth Rs 2,000 every month. I have to look after both my families as my brothers are young”, she said.
When the going got tough, she decided to work as a driver for the BMC and took up the job three months back. Smrutirekha, who studied political science from Maharishi College of Natural Law and also underwent Montessori training, said that Centre for Youth and Social Development (CYSD) had organised a driving training course for about 15 women of Patharabandha slum in 2019.
“I took the training and CYSD helped me to get the job in the BMC”, she said. Her day starts at 5 am and along with two helpers, she collects dry and wet garbage from places like OUAT Colony, Siripur, Gopabandhu Square, and others in the city. The wet waste is dumped at the micro composting centre (MCC) in Unit-VIII and dry waste at a centre near Sainik School,” she said.
BMC Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Singh said efforts are on to engage more and more women in the civic body to provide them livelihood help during the pandemic. Women self-help groups are being engaged in operations of MCCs too, he added. Apart from Smrutirekha, three other women drivers are currently engaged as drivers of BMC vehicles for transporting waste in the city.