Thiruvananthapuram Corporation Mayor Arya Rajendran took action against 11 staff members for dumping Onam sadhya (a special traditional meal) in a waste bin as part of a protest. Seven of the staff members were suspended and four others dismissed. A video of the staff members, mainly sanitation workers, throwing a huge quantity of food into a waste bin had recently gone viral. They were protesting against the corporation secretary’s orders that Onam celebrations can be held only after duty hours and that staff members cannot take a break to celebrate the festival.
“In Chala circle, the food prepared for the employees in connection with the Onam celebrations was thrown into the garbage by a section of workers in the name of a strike. I strongly condemn and reject this extremely degrading treatment of food. Strikes and agitations are all permissible and necessary in a democratic system. But any struggle, protest and public action involving throwing away food can only be seen as belittling the people around the world who are suffering without food or even a drop of drinking water,” the Mayor wrote on her Facebook page.
“Eleven people were involved in this act. Seven of them are regular employees. They were suspended immediately. The remaining four are temporary workers and it has been decided to terminate them,” Arya added.
Meanwhile, a section of workers protesting under the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) said that the the secretary’s order was clearly discriminatory against the workers.
“All the officials in the corporation come for the sadhya wearing neat clothes. We start our cleaning work early in the morning. We clean the streets and garbage bins. When we return around 12 noon, we are stinking. We do not even get time to take a bath before having the sadhya. That is why we protested, not because we are too lazy to work. We too need the dignity of turning up neat and clean for the celebrations,” a worker said.
The workers’ protest and the Mayor’s decision has left social media users in the state strongly divided. Many supported the workers saying that they too have dignity. Saying that dismissing them - that too during the Onam season - was not right on the part of the Mayor, they added that the harsh punishment would push them into poverty.