HYDERABAD: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has finally heard the demands of its sanitation worker for safety gear. Following criticism from various sections of the society, including MAUD Minister KT Rama Rao, the civic body has decided to procure safety equipment for all the sanitation, veterinary and entomology staff for the current financial year by this month-end as they make a key contribution to public health.
Around 25,000 sanitation staffers across the city work in a deplorable and hazardous conditions while sweeping and lifting garbage with their bare hands, even during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, without wearing protective gear. The civic body has only been able to provide masks and jackets with reflective stickers as of now though the sanitation workers have been demanding GHMC to provide fully-equipped safety kits.
As per the Solid Waste Management Rules of 2016, notified by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, local authorities have to ensure that all labourers handling solid wastes are provided with safety gear such as face masks, hand gloves, radium jacket, raincoats, footwear and others.
Though sanitation workers provide an essential public services that is key to safeguarding human health, they work without safety equipment. The GHMC will now provide protective gear such as nose masks, heavy rubber duty hand gloves, soaps, sanitisers, coconut oil, radium jackets, rain coat, safety shoes, safety cap bath towel and special kit for the current financial year. Sources said that the civic body has invited tenders for 34 packages.