No salary for 1.5K sanitation workers in Delhi schools for 5 months
NEW DELHI: Even as the Delhi government flaunts its cleanliness drives and school hygiene campaigns, nearly 1,500 sanitation workers deployed in around 250 schools have been working without receiving a single rupee in salaries for the past five months.
The issue has been formally raised with the directorate of education by senior lawyer Ashok Agarwal, who has urged immediate intervention.
In a letter addressed to the secretary of education, Agarwal highlighted that the workers, hired through outsourcing agency Orion Security Solutions Pvt. Ltd., have been denied wages since April 2025. The sanitation staff, who come from some of the most economically vulnerable sections of society, are engaged in daily cleaning and maintenance of government schools under the directorate of education.
“For the last five months, these sanitation workers have not been paid their due salaries. It is most unfortunate that these employees, who already belong to a very low-income group and live hand-to-mouth, are being subjected to such inhuman treatment,” Agarwal wrote. He warned that the denial of timely wages was causing immense financial and social hardship to the workers and their families, who are struggling to meet basic needs.
Calling the situation “illegal and unjustified”, Agarwal argued that the non-payment amounted to a violation of the fundamental right to livelihood guaranteed under Articles 21 and 23 of the Constitution of India, apart from breaching several labour laws.
He further appealed to the education department to ensure immediate disbursal of pending salaries to all sanitation workers and to establish mechanisms to prevent such lapses in the future. “It is also requested that a proper mechanism be put in place to ensure that such delay in payment of wages does not recur,” Agarwal stressed.