The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : A clean act, but at a price at work

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Sunday, Feb 15, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

A clean act, but at a price at work

S.Aishwarya

— Photo: N.Sridharan

ESSENTIAL SERVICES: A conservancy worker clearing the garbage on Besant Nagar Avenue.

CHENNAI: If residents across the city wake up to clean roads and emptied dustbins every day, it is because there is a group of workers who slog it out mostly during odd hours.

Conservancy workers’ day begins well after the sounds of vehicles die down. “We work in two shifts. Morning shift that begins at 6.30 and goes on till 2.30 p.m. is primarily for women, while the late evening shift – 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. is for men. But we do have men and women working in both shifts,” says S. Annadurai, public relations officer of Neel Metal Fanalca (NMF), a garbage clearance firm that operates in four zones of the Chennai Corporation.

For many of the workers like A. Sumathy, it is not easy to balance work and family. “I need to finish my cooking before 5.30 a.m. to get to work. By the time I reach home, it’s almost 5 p.m. and loads of pending chores would be waiting for me.”

Emptying the garbage bins in Tata Ace vans with reflectors stuck all over his uniform, J. Ramesh Kumar, a driver with NMF, says the job has taken a toll on his health.

“Sometimes, I feel nauseated by being constantly amid garbage. Since two years, I am experiencing breathing difficulties. There are many workers who suffer from respiratory ailments,” he says.

NMF administers vaccines every three months to prevent dust allergies and related diseases among its workers. But for many, the preventive measures are not enough, say the workers.

Constant exposure to dust has resulted in asthma for P. Jothiraj. The night-shift worker undergoes treatment every month at ESI Hospital and finds winter the most dreadful of all seasons.

“It becomes difficult to even work. It is depressingly dark and cold. Sleep cycle gets disturbed. During rainy days, my raincoat becomes useless as the roads will be inundated with knee-deep water.”

But for 57-year-old G. Chinnamma, a Corporation conservancy worker, health, fortunately, cooperated all through nearly four decades of service.

“Previously, we were allotted areas that are near our homes. Now I have to travel from T. Nagar to High Court every morning at five. Travel has affected my health but I have so far not experienced any breathing difficulties,” she says.

D. Prabakar Rao, one of the supervisors with the Solid Waste Management unit of the civic body, says workers find it tough to reach the working place on time.

“They have to mark their attendance on a biometric device. Unlike the manual attendance marking system, this requires them to be present on time to avoid being marked absent.”

That is something workers such as Sumathy are careful enough to avoid. She, in fact, works all days a week and saves her holidays to take a break and provide her body the much-needed rest.

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