Move beyond lip service, overburdened municipal workers tell Palike

While the BBMP celebrates Ambedkar Jayanti every year by declaring a bonus and facilitating the pourakarmikas, it has done little else to ease their everyday work.

Speaking to DH about the working conditions and challenges of the municipal workers, Nirmala M, president of the BBMP Pourakarmika Sanghatane, said the workers were overburdened. And that’s because the BBMP has failed to hire replacements for pourakarmikas who have lost their lives during the pandemic and many others who retired.

“Many pourakarmikas are now assigned three roads to sweep, which is way beyond their capacity. It is not realistic,” Nirmala said.

A pourakarmika working in the RR Nagar Zone said the increased load was affecting their health. “We start early in the morning. The addition of new roads has increased the work pressure and many of us are left drained by the end of the day,” she said.

A senior BBMP official from the Department of Solid Waste Management acknowledged a shortage of pourakarmikas.

“According to the rules, each pourakarmika should be assigned a 350-500-metre stretch. However, considering the number of pourakarmikas and the road length under the BBMP, some pourakarmikas may be assigned up to 600 metres,” he said.

He added that the BBMP’s proposal to recruit more pourakarmikas has been pending with the state government.

Mechanised Vs manual sweeping

“Officials overlooking the proposal believe that the city should move towards mechanised sweeping instead of manual sweeping simply because manually sweeping arterial and sub-arterial roads is dangerous. If all these arterial and sub-arterial roads are swept using the machines, pourakarmikas could be relieved and distributed across other lanes,” the official said.

According to an estimate by the SWM department, the civic body needs at least 100 sweeping machines and has so far procured only 25.

That apart, pourakarmikas also lamented that the bonus announced for the celebration of Ambedkar Jayanti is yet to reach them. “This is the case every time. We have to fight to get the welfare benefits,” Nirmala said.

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