Sanitation worker sweeps hurdles on way to MPhil

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Since he gained admission to the programme in Inclusive Development and Social Justice in 2014, Yadav has been seeking his entitled study leave from the BMC. But over a year later, and with his course nearing completion, Yadav is yet to get a response from his employer.

Without leave, along with work in Mumbai’s D ward, Yadav has so far managed to not only attend his course lectures but also completed the data collection for his thesis on the topic — ‘The lives of Women Scavengers of MCGM: An inquiry into the Journey of Realities and Aspirations’.

“I would work at night and attend morning classes in TISS. With lack of sleep, it would be difficult to manage both but with help from my course-mates and staff, I continued. I wanted my research to also be about the scavenger community, especially the women, who face social exclusion due to their work and caste. Interviewing them only brought out my resolve to change things for the community,” Yadav, 37, told The Indian Express.

As the conservancy workers are predominantly from the Scheduled Castes, Yadav said he expected the BMC to be supportive about his resolve to gain an education despite all odds. But this is not the first time that the BMC has let him down.

When The Indian Express first wrote about him on February 9, 2013, Yadav was pursuing his MA from TISS and had been shortlisted for a student-exchange programme at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa.

His series of study leave applications for the three-month programme had got no response till his coursemates filed an RTI to find out why.

“It was then made clear that a conservancy worker is not entitled to study leave,” Yadav said. It was the Prime Minister’s Office which had intervened at that point after The Indian Express report and ordered an inquiry. An order by the National Commission for Scheduled Castes followed which directed the BMC to grant unconditional leave to Yadav or face charges under SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

“At that point, I had been granted 24-month leave, of which I availed three months’ leave to attend the student-exchange programme. When I got admission for the MPhil-PhD course, I sought my pending leave but I was not given any response,” he said.

Yadav filed an RTI to seek the progress on his leave in 2014, in response to which, he was told that the application was in process from one department to the other. His second RTI application in January too had not received any reply. When contacted, additional municipal commissioner Pallavi Darade said she does not see leave matters and the chief engineer of the solid waste management department should be contacted. The chief engineer was not available for comment.

With the deadline to submit his thesis on March 1, Yadav has now availed of a one-month leave from his travel leave. “After I completed my MA, I had expected to be promoted as a labour officer in the BMC so that I could work on the issues of workers that I have myself experienced. When I was denied promotion as well, I resolved to pursue further studies. When I had first applied for leave, I was told by authorities that if the BMC begins to grant study leave for safai karmacharis, who will do the work?”

“It has only driven me to seek the rights given to me as a citizen under the Constitution. There are many like me with educational qualifications better than their current jobs as Grade IV employees. I hope this struggle can give them the hope to fight against the caste discrimination by the BMC,” he said.