What rubbish, BBMP! Pourakarmikas seek better pay, regularised employment

At a protest in the city this morning, pourakarmikas repeated their longstanding demands. A monthly salary hike to Rs 35,000 and regularisation of their employment by the BBMP. Despite doing a job that is difficult, taxing and hazardous, their compensation is meagre and authorities’ concern for 
their welfare is minimal. Y. Maheswara Reddy reports

“We have to depend on building owners for survival since we get meager wages from the contractor,” says Muthyalu, a helper of an auto-tipper in the C.V. Raman Nagar Ward. Every month, pourakarmikas, dependent largely on the kindness of strangers, collect Rs 30 to Rs 50 from the houses where garbage is collected from doorsteps. Pourakarmikas who sweep the streets have also complained against the delay in receiving wages, about Rs 14,040 a month, from the service provider. “We are supposed to get wages on the 7th but they are usually delayed for more than 20 days,” says Chandrakala, a pourakarmika working at Ward No. 72.

On Wednesday morning, residents awoke to mounting piles of garbage on street corners, along with the attendant stench. This was the result of a mere day-long protest by pourakarmikas, auto tipper drivers and the teams that attend to solid waste collection across Bengaluru, demanding that the BBMP regularise their services. “It is a symbolic protest, this time. We will go on indefinite strike if BBMP authorities fail to meet our demands in two months,” says Narayana, secretary, Karnataka Pourakarmika Association. “BBMP authorities should make arrangements to make direct salary payments to pourakarmikas, supervisors, auto-tipper and compactor drivers and loading assistants,” Narayana told News Trail. “Though the wages for pourakarmikas and supervisors are deposited in their bank accounts, auto-tipper and compactor drivers and their helpers depend on garbage contractors for their wages.” The payment of wages for auto-tipper drivers and loading assistants seems completely dependent on the whims and fancies of the contractors.

“Pourakarmikas did not turn up to pick up garbage this morning,” said a resident from Indiranagar. “I have informed their mestri but nothing came of it.” Garbage collection was badly affected in Bengaluru East, Bengaluru South, RR Nagar and Yelahanka Zones on Wednesday.

Dinesh S drives an auto-tipper, into which garbage is loaded everyday by pourakarmikas, who collect it door-to-door. Dinesh hasn’t been paid for four months. Scores of people who drive auto-tippers and compactors, their helpers and of course, pourakarmikas and their supervisors tell the same sad story. The BBMP, which has outsourced solid waste collection and transportation, has left these workers at the mercy of garbage contractors. “There are contractors who pay wages to auto-tipper drivers and helpers once in five or six months,” says Dinesh. “Sometimes the contractor fails to provide us with diesel for our vehicles.”