BENGALURU : From cleaning the garbage and gutters of Bengaluru, they will soon be hopping on to their first international flight to study the system of garbage disposal and cleaning of cities in foreign countries. After elected representatives and babus from various corporations, it’s time for pourakarmikas and manual scavengers across Karnataka to visit foreign countries to study the waste management system.
The Department of Social Welfare has come up with this unique proposal and hopes to implement the scheme in the coming days.
In the last five years, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) has sent many representatives and officials on jaunts across the country and sometimes abroad to study the management of garbage in other cities. But despite these study tours, they are unable to find any solution to the city’s mounting garbage woes.
This time they have decided to give an opportunity to the people who actually do this work. A team of 25-30 people, including pourakarmikas and manual scavengers, will be sent on the tour. “We will pick one person from each district. In other countries, those who keep the city clean, especially the scavengers, lead a healthy life. But here in India, manual scavengers die during their work. Some die due to suffocation,” Social Welfare Minister H Anjaneya told The Sunday Standard.
When asked about the foreign study pourakarmikas said that the municipality should ensure that they are given salaries on time, rather than conducting fancy tours.