By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Karvaan IndiaKarvaan India
  • Home
  • Read
    • High Five
    • Politics
    • Society
    • Heritage
    • Culture
    • Others
  • Watch
    • High Five
    • Politics
    • Society
    • Heritage
    • Culture
    • Others
  • Listen
  • SDGs
    • Mental Health
    • Gender
    • Clean Water & Sanitation
    • Education
    • Partnership for Goals
  • Café Karvaan
    • Events
    • Co-working
    • Speakers
  • Bookmarks
Reading: The Other COVID Warriors
Share
Notification Show More
Latest News
Savarkar, Bulbul and the Frog
Essays Read Read Essays
Hindu Crisis, Muslim Cost
Politics
Delhi February 2020: Riot or Pogrom?
Watch
[Video] 5 Independence Slogans coined by Muslims
Watch
[Video] Aaghaz e Nau | Tanzil Rahman
Watch
Aa
Karvaan IndiaKarvaan India
Aa
  • Read
  • Watch
  • Listen
  • SDGs
  • Café Karvaan
  • My Bookmarks
  • Topics
    • Read
    • Watch
    • Listen
  • Quick Links
  • Bookmarks
    • Customize Interests
    • My Bookmarks
Follow US
© 2023 Karvaan India. All Rights Reserved.
Karvaan India > Story > Magazine > The Other COVID Warriors
MagazineSociety

The Other COVID Warriors

sreyasarkar
Last updated: 2020/06/27 at 12:51 PM
sreyasarkar 3 years ago
Share
SHARE

Fighting the COVID battle shoulder-to-shoulder with the doctors and nurses is an army of sanitation workers. Four million of the Safai Karmacharis are the backbone of India’s waste management system. 

Even before the onset of the pandemic, they were the most vulnerable group suffering from poor and inconsistent pay, lack of insurance, bad health due to exposure to filth and noxious gases, and facing rampant caste discrimination (as most belong to the Dalit community). Despite laws, sanitation workers have always been neglected. The 2013 Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act mandates that they should be provided ‘protective gear’ yet they are cleaning hospitals, residential colonies, and commercials spaces without masks, gloves, boots, and protective gear. Part of the informal sector, they are employed by states and private citizens for doing the job no one else wants to stoop to. What they provide is “essential service”, but despite the efforts of Safai Karmachari unions and activists, the government does not follow the mandated law and do their bit to protect them.  

The pandemic has doubled their vulnerability. They cannot stay away from work for that will mean a lack of income as most work as daily wagers. They don’t have transportation and have to walk hours to go to work. They don’t have access to PPEs. They are not even given proper instruction on handling the unmarked contaminated waste. They live in shanty towns where physical distancing is not possible. Their contact with infected waste puts their already frail health further at risk. 

The national government has issued guidelines for handling and disposal of Covid-19 waste that is comprehensive enough, but the real question is whether they are being implemented. There is no mass media campaign on how to separate biomedical waste from regular garbage though their generation has increased manifold in containment zones, quarantine centres, and hospitals. Hazardous waste needs to be disposed of in Common Bio-Medical Waste Treatment Facilities (CBWTF). India has only 198 such facilities which are not even enough in non-pandemic times. Only 225 hospitals have captive incinerators. Seven states do not have a single CBWTF. Overall, India’s waste management system is not prepared to handle a pandemic. 

While doctors and nurses are being put up in hotels, which is the right thing to do, given the service they are providing in such dire times, the sanitation workers are being ignored. Does this imply that class and caste still play significant roles in policymaking in India? Of course, they do. 

But what policymakers don’t realize is that the virus does not discriminate between the rich and the poor. If a sanitation worker is infected, he will pass it to many more since they reside in high-density slums, as has happened in Dharavi, Mumbai. While the country fights to keep the infected numbers down, this lack of will to plug in the right policies to aid the sanitation workers will thwart the primary purpose and adversely affect the entire nation.  

The task of taking care of them is too big to be left to the government alone in these circumstances. Private citizens through Resident Welfare Associations and other civil society organizations should take it upon themselves to help out instead of spending their time virtue signalling on social media and shaming people from northeastern Indian states out of ignorance. We need more individuals to walk the talk like Sonu Sood. They can all become COVID warriors in different ways, this being one. Raising your voice and pitching in to protect sanitation workers in India is important and much-needed proof that India has not entirely lost its humanity after how the migrant workers were treated. 

You Might Also Like

Oversights and Omissions: Response to Urvashi Butalias Indian Express Article

Bihar Election: Diary of a First Time Voter

30 women Dalit engineers call out Indian bosses: Report reveals caste discrimination in Silicon Valley

Law Enforcement & Loopholes: What is in the rape?

The booming art of animation in Africa

TAGGED: Corona, Covid19, Dalits, Manualscavengers, Pandemic, Safaikaramcharis, Sanitationworker
sreyasarkar June 27, 2020
Share this Article
Facebook Twitter Email Print
Previous Article UN experts asked India to release human rights activists
Next Article Fear in Kashmir as thousands get domicile certificates: Al Jazeera reports

Follow US

Find US on Social Medias
Facebook Like
Twitter Follow
Instagram Follow
Youtube Subscribe
newsletter featurednewsletter featured

Subscribe Newsletter

Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!

Most Popular

Inspiring Generations – Iqbal and Azad
4 years ago
‘Education must be Muslim priority’
4 years ago
India’s encounters with secular v/s anti-secular rhetoric
3 years ago
From Kurla Slums to Virginia: A Young Scientist’s Journey to Success
3 years ago

Karvaan India is a new-age digital magazine that intends to celebrate diversity through storytelling centred around socially and economically marginalised people.

  • Join Us
  • Member Login
  • FAQs
  • Refund policy
  • Cancellation policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Newsletters
  • Support & complaint
  • Privacy policy
  • Submissions
  • About us
  • In media
  • Contact Us

© 2023. Citizens Karvaan. All Rights Reserved.

Join Us!

Subscribe to our newsletter and never miss our latest news, podcasts etc..

Zero spam, Unsubscribe at any time.

Removed from reading list

Undo
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Lost your password?