The day after: Pourakarmikas slog to clear Diwali waste

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: During festivals like Diwali we can clearly see the class divide in our society. While some of us complain how we have to go back to work in air conditioned offices, there are people like Pourkarmikas who have to clean up the toxic firecracker wastes on the streets without any safety gear or incentives.

Near the Pipeline Road in Ejipura, an entire street was littered with fire crackers and garbage after Diwali celebrations. Mala, a 42-year-old Pourkarmika, along with her colleagues had to clean the street without any protective gear.

When asked how much money the government is giving her for all the extra work she said, “The government pays nothing. Sometimes local residents are kind enough to give Rs 10-20. That’s all I make.”

Mala has dirty clothes, torn gloves and four children to feed. She claims she has not been paid salary for the last two months and is not a permanent employee. Pushpa, another civic worker who was picking up firecrackers from the road, said, “This happens during every festival.

The streets are littered and we have to clean it. I don’t have a problem in cleaning all this, but we get nothing in return. There are fire crackers on the road but my children didn’t get to play with them. I didn’t have enough money to buy them new clothes, let alone crackers.”

The civic workers in the state have been protesting for years demanding permanent jobs, wage hike and access to protective gears. However, paying extra money to civic workers for their work during festivals doesn’t find its space in the Rs 8,409 crore budget for Bengaluru.

While some citizens after noticing the plight of the workers do offer them a box of sweets or some money, this doesn’t solve the bigger issues of wage and employment.