VIJAYAWADA : It is not uncommon to see workers unclogging manholes with sticks and rods, without wearing shoes, gloves or masks in Vijayawada. But it’s not just this city. In fact, not even a single conservancy worker in Andhra Pradesh is fully equipped with safety gear.
Over 2,000 such workers go down the drains every single day in major municipal corporations like Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Tirupati, Guntur, Kurnool, Anantapur, Rajahmundry, Kakinada, Eluru and Ongole.
Though there is a ban on manual scavenging under the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, the practice continues unabated, with official sanction in the State. Two workers died due to suffocation near the civil courts complex in March last year. One had gone down a manhole to clear it, but toxic fumes paralysed him.
His colleague, in a bid to save him, got inside only to suffer the same fate. Despite the tragedy, nothing has changed. Over the last eight years, seven workers have died, even as the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation paid no attention. Across the State, at least 25 workers have died exactly in this fashion in the past decade.
Municipal corporations entrust the task of manual scavenging to private contractors, but the latter claim it’s the duty of the civic body to equip workers. When contacted, three contractors refused to take questions on the issue. The workers must be provided with face masks, gloves, headlight and gumboots before they enter manholes.
A senior official of the Underground Drainage (UGD) wing of the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation, on condition of anonymity, admitted that workers do not have safety equipment, but reasoned that there was “no necessity” for the same.
“These days, there’s no such need for conservancy workers to physically enter a manhole to clear clogging, as necessary machines are supplied by the civic body. Sometimes, clogging cannot be cleared by a machine. In that case, we use manpower, but until then, for complaints, we prefer machines,” he explained, adding that for this reason, no budgetary allocation had been made to supply safety gear to the workers.
However, the workers are not convinced. “It’s ridiculous on part of the government to play havoc with our lives. The tall claims of the government about efficient usage of technology proved wrong, as it miserably failed in providing us safety gears.
Despite being a life-threatening job, we’re still continuing the profession hoping that our services will be regularised some day. If not, we’ll quit,” N Satish, a conservancy worker, told Express. He clarified that he had never seen a machine do the job. He has been working as a conservancy worker in Vijayawada for almost 10 years.
In many cases, conservancy workers are exposed to deadly viral and bacterial infections that affect the skin, eyes, limbs, respiratory and gastrointestinal systems.
“On an average, 10 to 15 conservancy workers get treatment everyday for various ailments at the ESI Hospital here. Most of them are provided medicines for respiratory problems, and some of them are referred to private hospitals for better medical aid,” Ch Bhaskara Rao, senior physician at ESI Hospital, Vijayawada, said.