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Sanitation workers (Pourakarmikas) in Karnataka have slammed Greater Bengaluru Development Minister Krishna Byre Gowda for his remarks against them, calling it “painful” and also deeply “angering”.
While Gowda was carrying out inspections on Saturday, September 5, at Agara Lake, a group of pourakarmikas met him seeking regularisation of their jobs.
“How can we make those who don’t come to work permanent? How is the city supposed to be kept clean when people don’t turn up for work. Thirty percent of workers don’t turn up on a given day. People abuse us (when there is garbage),” he said.
When one of the workers tried to speak, Gowda said “summaniri” (be quiet) in a tone they felt was rude. “When people show no interest in work, why should they be made permanent? Learn to work first, all you know is to talk,” the minister said.
When workers tried to respond, Gowda said he was citing attendance records and told them to stop lying.
“We’re supposed to give you your salary, and a bunch of other things, but nobody turns up for work. If the city is stinking, we’re the ones who get abused for giving you salaries. There should be some humanity. The desire to work should be there. The whole area is stinking. All you can think of is permanent status… Do you know what it means to work with sincerity?”
Caught on video his response elicited both praise and severe criticism, not just from people in Bengaluru and Karnataka, but also across the world.
Nirmala, president of the BBMP Pourakarmika Sangha, affiliated to the All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU), said that his statements were arrogant.
She pointed out that his remarks betrayed complete cluelessness of not only his own government’s policies, but also of how the garbage collection system has been gamed by contractors with the result that workers are exploited and that city turns into a giant dustbin.
A year ago, the state government issued an order making sanitation workers’ jobs permanent. This ended years of urban local bodies outsourcing sanitation work to contractors who often skimmed off the workers’ salaries and exploited them. However, while the order exists, many workers’ applications to make their appointments permanent have been held up due to bureaucratic delays.
This situation makes the minister’s remarks even more objectionable than they already are, said Nirmala.
“When a minister behaves like this, how do you think officials will behave with us? Government officials want all kinds of documents to approve our applications. There is a real fear that our applications will get held up even more,” Nirmala said.
In a video released online on September 6, Nirmala spoke about how pourakarmikas were frontline workers who had worked throughout the Covid-19 pandemic without complaint. “Did you give us any special wages for that? Or extra leave?”
Nirmala had several things to say about Gowda’s sweeping accusations on worker absenteeism, garbage collection and their links with a corrupt nexus between garbage contractors and government officials.
“He accuses us of absenteeism. But our wages are cut if we don’t show up for work. How will we pay rent and afford food if we don’t turn up for work? We’re not people with high salaries.”
She said that pourakarmikas’ job is to sweep the city’s streets and that they were already overworked and understaffed. “These garbage contractors show they’ve hired dozens of workers on paper, but there’s practically no one on the ground. So then we’re asked to go to these areas and collect the trash. The health department, the engineers, they’re all on the take. At present, 20 people are doing work that you need 50 people for. They haven’t filled vacancies that arose after retirements and deaths of workers.”
Nirmala said that pourakarmikas’ salaries had been won by a long struggle and that their salaries were simply inadequate.
“We have worked for this salary for many years. And that’s what we have to use to buy everything—from the brooms and uniforms to paying rent. We’re given a house rent allowance of Rs 5,500. Where in Bengaluru can you rent a house for that much? On top of that, we need to use this salary even to pay bribes to make our jobs permanent. Why doesn’t he demand answers from officials for all this?”
