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Covid-19 update: Srinagar sanitation workers ‘unsung heroes’ in fight against coronavirus
Around 5,000 workers of Srinagar municipal corporation have been carrying out the decontamination and sanitation of the city and spraying some 50,000 litres of the chemical mixture on a daily basis to sanitise various public places and institutions to contain the further spread of deadly coronavirus.
Last month when Srinagar municipal corporation (SMC) worker Irfan Shabir received a call from his supervisor that he would be part of a team to sanitise the home of a Covid-19 positive patient, his heart skipped a beat. Of the nine-member team, he was among the two youths, both in their 20s, who had to hold the chemical sprayers and enter the room of the house in the city outskirts. Though he was provided a personal protection equipment kit the fear was palpable. Before leaving for the task, he called his mother and asked her to pray for him.
At the site, Shabir had to thoroughly spray the chemical. Apart from the house, they had to disinfect the surrounding houses in the 90 yards diameter. “I was scared but what else was the option,” said Shabir.
Since then he has been regularly involved in door-to-door sanitisation in different areas of the city.
Around 5,000 workers of SMC have been carrying out the decontamination and sanitation of the city and spraying some 50,000 litres of the chemical mixture on a daily basis to sanitise various public places and institutions to contain the further spread of deadly coronavirus.
Around 70% of these workers are not permanently employed and have been working on a daily wage or consolidated basis like Shabir earns ₹6,700 a month. While many officials and health workers involved in fighting the pandemic have been amplifying their presence through the use of social media, most of these sanitation workers have been going on silently doing their work.
“We are doing a very risky job. People are in their homes and we are out in the field, fighting,” said 29-year-old Sajad Ahmad, who during normal days would collect sanitation fee for SMC.
On some occasions, these workers have faced the wrath of angry people and even the police. On Wednesday, Srinagar mayor Junaid Azim Mattu alleged that the Jammu and Kashmir Police thrashed some of the sanitation workers and posted a clip on social media where policemen could be seen thrashing employees of the Srinagar municipal corporation somewhere in the city.
Owing to the lockdown, there aren’t many options for the workers. When the things were normal many workers also used to work part-time jobs apart from the SMC.
