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Panchkula garbage collectors fear for livelihood amid move to private firm
Nearly 300 garbage collectors are tipped to be hired by the private firm after the Panchkula MC’s move, but several others fear being forced out of work
Protesting against the introduction of a private company into the business, door-to-door garbage waste collectors commenced an indefinite sit-in outside the Panchkula municipal corporation (MC) building on Monday.
Under the new system, which came into force on April 11 in certain parts of the city, a private company was hired to take over garbage collection. Nearly 300 workers were tipped to make the move to the private company, which was to offer a ₹15,000-salary to its employees.
Kamla, who was 25 when she first started collecting waste in Sector 9 along with her husband, is still at it forty-five years later. “My husband died while doing this work and now I go to the lanes with my son,” she said.
“Neither the government, nor the company had given us livelihood. The residents gave us the work and we will continue to work for them. Who gave the corporation the right to take away our right to livelihood from us?” the 62-year old further asked.
Kamla, along with her son, collects waste from over 200 houses at the charge of ₹100 each. With this income, she funds the education of her grandchildren.
“We don’t want ₹15,000, just our work back. That’s how I have been funding my grandchildrens’ education,” Kamla said, as she got up from the protest site in disappointment.
Another 55-year-old garbage collector, Ajit Singh, who lives in a rented accommodation in Buddhanpur, said he had been collecting waste for the last 25-26 years from a set of houses in Sector 16, adding, “In the beginning, we used to collect ₹10 per house and now around ₹100 per house. The resident welfare associations (RWA) gave us the job. The residents are still giving me the garbage.”
The introduction of the private company had led to sleepless nights for the garbage collectors, with Raj Bala, 46, saying, “I have lost my appetite and I don’t sleep at night. I have three children to look after. Also, we have dedicated our lives to this work so how can the government think about taking away our livelihood?”
Door-to-door Garbage Collectors Association president Manju said the sit-in started at 12 pm and lasted for around hours. He added, “There are around 1,600 door-to-door collectors in Panchkula city, Pinjore, Kalka, Ramgarh. Of these 1,000 will be in the city.”
Speaking of the work that the collectors undertook, Manju said “Earlier, we used to collect waste from homes and throw it at secondary points from where MC vehicles used to pick the waste. We even segregated waste for them as well for over a year, until MC stopped collecting the waste.”
The MC, meanwhile, maintained their stance that the move was generating employment and not taking it away.
MC deputy commissioner Deepak Sura said, “The new system has already started on April 11, a day after the chief minister inaugurated it. It is functional from Sectors 6 to 19 and at MDC Sectors 4 and 5. A company has been assigned the work, which has agreed to accommodate 300 persons at the salary ₹15,000 per month. There will be other perks as well.”
He added that the MC was looking to make the city dustbin-free and free from secondary waste collection points that are currently present in every sector.
