NEW DELHI: Hundreds of sanitation workers on Monday gathered outside the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) headquarters in Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Civic Centre with demands such as retention of temporary workers, end of delay in salary payment, housing for workers, hiring of new workers, distribution of bonuses, among others.
The demonstration was organised by Swachta Karmachari Union in collaboration with the ‘Core Committee of the MCD’. Sharing problems faced by sanitation workers, Deepak, a temporary worker, said, “The salary of a temporary worker is Rs 12,000 per month only. If you work in a private company, then you will get more than Rs 20,000. However, despite doing an important job like sanitation and employed by the government, we get peanuts.”
He said that when the Covid was at its devastating peak in Delhi, workers wore PPT gears and handled dead bodies when even relatives of the dead were not coming near to them. Rakhi Birla, who has been on temporary service in MCD since 2006, was perturbed at repeated delay of her salary. She said, “My salary has been delayed twice. Now, you tell me how can I feed my kids?”
Birla lives in a rented house in Budh Vihar with her two kids. She said that she is a single mother and all family responsibilities are on her shoulders. She bitterly remarked on the bonus delay: “For us, there is no festive celebration. The MCD did not even pay the bonus to us on festivals. At times, I think that suicide would be preferable.”
According to officials, among the 60,000 sanitation workers in MCD, more than 30,000 workers were working as temporary since 1998. Later, the protesting workers through ‘MCD Core Commi tee’ met some MCD officials like additional commissioners R. Alka and Sant Lal Chawaria. However, they were asked to meet Special Commissioner and Commissioner after 15 days. “If our demands are not met even then, we will return to protest,” they said.