Pourkarmikas are doctors of a city: Activist

NT Correspondent
Bengaluru

Trade union activist and lawyer Clifton D’Rozario highlighted the challenges faced by the Pourakarmikas, both at the hands of civic administration and the age-old societal prejudices they have to put up with. In his address at the Sustainability Sundays, organised by environment and climate change organisation Fridays for Future, he said, “Pourakarmikas are the doctors of the city. It is not something I say rhetorically, but has a factual basis. If the worker does not come one day, people will be out on their doorsteps, questioning what will happen with the garbage.”

Clifton also highlighted the importance of looking at the profession through the lens of caste. “There is a denial of caste in urban areas. There is a clear caste reason why entirely almost all of them are Dalit. It is not a product of yesterday, but of what has been happening since the times of colonial power and the continual ensuring of the caste system not being tackled,” he said.

Clifton brought to notice the policy that was introduced in 1991 that established an embargo on Group-D professions and put forth the contract system. “Solid waste management is an obligatory function of the municipality. They must have their own workforce but with the introduction of the contract system, it led to decades of humiliation and subjugation towards the workers,” he said.

He continued to speak of the uprising and mobilisation that led to the introduction of minimum wages for the pourakarmikas and their continued struggles for regularisation. He said that the pourakarmikas are the climate justice warriors and are doing a big service to protect the environment by cleaning the city.

“The environmental crisis is an inherent contradiction of capitalism. You cannot be pro-capitalism and say you are an environmentalist,” he said, adding that the interests of the working classes must be tied with environmental protection. He called for young adults to attend agitations to showcase solidarity and incorporate solidarity in their everyday practices, in order to break the system of class and caste which equalises garbage with the worker. Clifton is an advocate at Manthan Law, National Secretary of AICCTU and State Secretary CPI (ML) Liberation.