The Hindu : New Delhi News : DJB gives a pittance to sewer cleaners

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Saturday, Jun 02, 2007
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New Delhi

DJB gives a pittance to sewer cleaners

Smriti Kak Balachandran

Safai karamcharis flay water utility; CEO denies charges

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Jal Board, which has a budget of over Rs.120 crore for cleaning sewers, has sanctioned a measly Rs.200 a month as safai/dirt allowance for its employees who clean sewers. It provides gumboots once in seven years and has paid between Rs.60,000 and 120,000 as compensation to the kin of those who lost their lives on the line of duty.

Irked by these revelations, the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis has criticised the water utility, which employs more than 3,000 workers, for failing to protect their rights.

"The Delhi Jal Board has failed to provide minimum wages to workers they have outsourced jobs and have failed to provide adequate medical facilities," complained National Commission for Safai Karamcharis chairperson Santosh Chowdhary.

"The Board is aware that its employees working under stressful and hazardous conditions are prone to serious diseases, yet it has not taken any initiative to increase their salaries and or pay them a risk allowance," she added.

At a meeting with the Commission recently, the Jal Board employees complained that the Board had failed to provide jobs on compassionate grounds, release compensation money on time to the families of workers who died in service, apart from not meeting many other commitments.

"We were apprised of a case where an employee who lost his eyesight while saving the lives of his two colleagues in 1988 comes to work everyday accompanied by a family member, but is yet to get compensation. It is unfortunate that the Board is sticking to a compensation Act that was drafted in 1923," Ms. Chowdhary said.

Coming down heavily on the practice of hiring daily wagers through contractors and middlemen to carry out the sewer cleaning jobs, Ms. Chowdhary said: "The onus of ensuring that the contractors employ the sanctioned strength and pay the minimum wages and provide life-saving equipment lies with the Board. Even if they are daily wagers, they ought to be paid Rs. 133.45 as minimum wages."

She said employees had also not been getting their salaries and pay slips on time. "They get paid Rs.30 as washing charges per month. Is that enough for the man who goes down in the muck? There needs to be a proper rehabilitation scheme for manual scavengers. Right now sewer beldars find it difficult to even go down with oxygen cylinders and masks as the circumference of the sewers are small."

Reacting to the allegations, Delhi Jal Board Chief Executive Officer Arun Mathur said: "The Board is aware of the needs of the sewer beldars. We have constituted a disaster and safety management department that trains the beldars and equips them with the know-how of working in sewers. We have brought in the most modern equipment needed for sewer cleaning and assume responsibility for mishaps and in the past one and a half years there have been no sewer deaths."

Denying the workers' charges, he said: "The Board cannot make any amendments to the Act because we have to follow the Government of India guidelines for compensation. We have exceeded the percentage of jobs granted on compassionate grounds and ensure that the employees are given uniforms and other equipment as well."

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