On the right side of the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) main gate, next to the historic Ripon building, there are now rows of tarpaulin tents with fluttering red flags of protesting sanitation workers. Around 2000 protesters have been camping here since August 1, opposing the GCC’s plan to privatise waste collection in zones 5 and 6 spread across multiple divisions of Royapuram and Thiru Vi Ka Nagar.
The workers, who were under contract as part of the National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM), say their income will drop from Rs 22,900 to Rs 15,000 when jobs are privatised, making lives harder.
Work under the GCC is less than ideal with no paid off days, no compensation for overtime work or even workplace injuries. The workers have been demanding regularisation of jobs and basic labour rights. The pay was hiked to Rs 22,590, less than a year ago. When the pay hike came, the workers thought their demands were finally going to be met, but the two zones were privatised. Waste management in Royapuram and Thiru Vi Ka Nagar was outsourced to Chennai Enviro Solutions Ltd, which also manages four other zones privatised in 2020 — Thiruvotriyur, Manali, Mandhavaram and Ambattur. The rest of the zones are managed by Spain-based Urbaser-Sumeet. The privatisation of other zones in 2020 during the Covid outbreak did not face the same kind of resistance.
Like in the rest of the country, sanitation work in Chennai, a city celebrated as Singara (beautiful in Tamil) is carried out almost exclusively by Dalit communities making this a fight against both economic precarity and caste-based occupational confinement”.
A Chennai sanitation worker’s day starts at 4 am. A large majority of them are women, and their salaries are the sole income for many families. After cooking meals and completing chores at home, they set off to ensure the city roads are clean. At around 6.30 am, they sign the ledger and get to work.
“We do all kinds of work picking up degradable and non-bio degradable waste, removing dirt from roads, cleaning sewage drains, and putting quicklime on the roads.” says 50-year-old Amudha, who works in division 73 of Thiru Vi Ka nagar.
“If stray dogs die, we have to deal with the carcass. If trees fall, we have to deal with the waste, leaves and all. We even have to clean the public washrooms,” says Kaveri, another worker.
Amudha has been working under the GCC for 15 years. “There were no leaves. Even when we are sick, we work because leaves mean pay cuts “vandha kooli, illena ilai (if we show up we get paid, if not then nothing).” If she gets sick, others around her pick up the slack. “They are family to me. They say, akka, you can go rest for a while, we’ll do it, don't worry. I have a father, brother, mother, sister, everything among them,” she says. Solidarity is often the only sustenance of the worker.
It is this solidarity that led to thousands of GCC workers camping at the heart of the city demanding for their rights.
"During the night this area fills with mosquitoes. It has been days since we have seen our kids. We bathe and go to the toilet in public washrooms. We have had to get loans even to be here, which can be repaid only with this job," says Kaveri, a sanitation worker. The occasional rains have made things worse for the protesting workers.
"A madam sits right behind us in that big building. She has not come forward to ask why we are protesting or what our troubles are. She talks like she doesn't like us," says Malar, who works in the Secretariat area under zone five. The workers are referring to Mayor R Priya. Many have expressed frustration about the mayor's apparent silence despite the protest at her doorstep.
Talking to TNM, the Mayor said, "The workers are asking for job security. They ask that they should not be removed from their jobs due to privatisation, that they should be held in the same divisions they have been working in. We had talks with the leaders of the protest. They even said, 'if work is assured, we will come join.' They have said they will discuss it."
Despite the Mayor's assertion that all is well, the situation on the ground remains tense. Police on August 6, tried to evict the protesters, calling the gathering unlawful. The protest leaders - unions including Uzhaipor Urumai Iyakkam (Workers' Rights Movement), the Left Trade Union Congress, and the All India Central Council of Trade Unions - have sat with the GCC for several rounds of talks, all of which have failed so far.
The workers say that there is not enough compensation despite the nature of work being hazardous. “I have had typhoid at least three times. I had to take off for 14 days or 15 days and my pay was cut. I was lodged in the Greater Chennai Corporation Communicable Disease Hospital, Tondiarpet” says Rani (40). Rani who works in Kolathur and has been working for 12 years.
Debora, a worker in her mid-thirties, says suffering insect and animal bites are common. She says allergies resulting from the work are often dealt with using over-the-counter medication.
Sangeetha, a worker in Kolathur was bitten by dogs twice. “While picking up garbage on the road a dog came and bit me. I went to get the tetanus shot and had to come back to work because leaves meant no salary.
B Sathish Kumar, now in his forties, has been working for more than 15 years. He had part of his finger severed during work when it got stuck while unloading waste onto a trash compactor. He lost wages because he couldn't work during recovery.
"If we ask our supervisor, they say, 'You knew all of this is part of the job. If not, why did you come to this work?” the workers say.
Through periodic floods and cyclones, these workers have stayed on the streets, clearing clogged drains, removing fallen leaves and debris, and pumping water from flooded areas. During the Covid-19 outbreak they were celebrated.“During the Covid-19 we were considered gods, now we have no one to take our grievances to,” says Kaveri, a sanitation worker.
Many workers during this time working without enough protective gear had fallen sick but could not do anything about it.
“Three of our co-workers got Covid back in 2020. One of them died. His name was Sreenivasan. His family was forgotten completely. No compensation was given,” says Rani, a sanitation worker.
Indumathi’s husband left her eight years ago. She has been working in the sanitation sector for the past 16 years. “It is this job that has given me the confidence to survive.” says Indumathi, a survivor of domestic abuse. Almost all the workers who have joined the protest have similar stories, either of being single mothers or with husbands being unemployed, often addicted to substances and alcohol.
An overwhelming majority of the workers are from Scheduled caste communities and caste becomes another point of oppression for these workers.
“We don’t care about the stench. This work is what feeds us. But when we go back home after work people refuse to sit near us because they say we smell,” says Kaveri.
“Nearly hundred percent of workers are from Dalit communities,” says Pulianthope Mohan, activist and advocate of the Madras High Court. It isn’t just about physical agony. There is a significant mental agony associated with it. “They cannot go sit in a shop like other people. In their own homes they will have separate plates and separate glasses,” he says.
They were denied job security because a temporary labourer cannot ask for his rights, says Mohan. “For the bureaucrat a permanent employee is someone who talks too much law. They cannot be forced to pick up human excreta, they won’t clean after the dead dog. If they were permanent employees they would complain. Both parties know about the SC/ST atrocities Act, and the manual scavenging Act. But they cannot raise their voices as they’ll lose jobs.” he says.
Under the GCC, the workers were part of the NULM. Many of them have worked for 15 years or more. While the GCC offered no special benefits, leaves or compensation for workers who are injured while on duty, they received Rs 22,590 on hand. Though the Chennai Enviro Solutions under Re Sustainability (formerly Ramky), which is now responsible for the work in two newly privatised zones, offer additional benefits, the money they will get on hand is less. Every month they will be paid Rs 19,000 but with deductions it would come down to Rs 15,000.
“Currently the workers get a consolidated pay of Rs 753 per day. We offer 630 per day. But we pay for all thirty days of the month including four holidays,” says Parisutham Vedhamuthu, manager of the Chennai Enviro Solutions Private Limited. He said the company offers 24 off days in a year including casual and sick leaves. It also offers Employee State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) benefits, Provident Fund (PF) and access to special medical camps and welfare funds.
“Benefits are good but the government should have given us this when we joined. My rent is Rs 7000 a month. With electricity and everything it comes to 8000. How do we run our families with the 15,000 we will get?” asks Amudha.
Mohan says their strike is not just for monetary benefits. “We don’t want GCC to sell Chennai,” he says. Privatisation of sanitation jobs would have an impact on the National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM), according to him.
“As a people’s representative body, the Corporation is tasked with four major responsibilities; sanitation, internal road construction, public health and sewage management. They already sold the sewage system to contractors. Now they are selling sanitation work. If all of these are given to private players what is the GCC’s role? Are they contract brokers?” asks Mohan.
Advocate Thirumoorthy of the Madras High Court says the state of Tamil Nadu also has a specific legislation, regarding regularisation of work. The Tamil Nadu Industrial Establishments Conferment of Permanent Status to Workmen Act 1981. “It stipulates that an employee who works for 480 days within a period of 24 months shall be awarded permanent status. The act can apply to these workers as well. They have been working for up to 20 years without any benefits,” he says.
Industry is defined as any calling, service, employment, handicraft or industrial occupation or avocation of workmen, which could include services like waste collection.
Thirumoorthy also says that provisions of the Manual Scavenging Act should also apply to these workers.
“They clean sewers and public toilets and handle animal carcasses. Many of these workers are not given any of the materials required for their work, no bleaching powder, no gloves, no masks, no gum boots or safety equipment. Anyone, including government officials who send workers into these situations knowing the hazardous nature of it can be charged with 304 IPC, culpable homicide, not amounting to murder as per the manual scavenging act. To my understanding, sending workers to clean sewers and public toilets, all without adequate equipment, is willingly putting them at risk.” he says.
For Independence Day, tricolour lights have already adorned the lamp posts in front of the GCC. Every year, the CM raises the tricolour from Fort St George in Chennai, with media, ceremonial guards and crowds watching.
"Work for Independence Day starts around July 20. On the eve of August 15, we work all night," says Malar, a sanitation worker. “There shouldn't even be dust on the roads,” she said. The workers disappear during the festivities only to return later for cleanup. "When the program ends, we have to restart, picking up the bottles people throw, cleaning after the attendees. It becomes harder if it rains—we have to keep sweeping away the rainwater." This year, as Independence Day approaches, the workers in two Chennai zones will be sitting on black tarpaulin sheets, battling weather and official apathy.