Why are Rajasthan’s sanitation workers protesting?

A majority of Rajasthan’s sanitation workers are from the Valmiki community. Here is why they are protesting

Most sanitation workers in Rajasthan are from the Valmiki community. (File)

The Rajasthan government issued a notification on March 1 for the recruitment of 24,000 sanitation workers across the state’s various municipal bodies.

Since then, sanitation workers in Rajasthan have gone on strike many times to stop the recruitment. On August 6, sanitation workers ended their two-week strike after getting assurance from the government that their demands would be fulfilled.

What are the sanitation workers demanding?

Around 1.5 lakh sanitation workers are currently working under the Rajasthan state government in various municipal bodies. A majority of these workers are from the Valmiki community, among the most marginalised of Scheduled Caste communities who have been involved in sanitation work for centuries.

Story continues below this ad

Now, sanitation workers are demanding that Valmiki community members should be given preference in the recruitment, which should not be done as per standard government norms in which General, ST, OBC, and other SC communities will also be recruited.

Valmiki community people have alleged that workers from other communities do not clean roads, public toilets, and drainage, and rather sub-let this work to Valmiki workers, increasing their burden.

How have sanitation workers been recruited in the past?

Before 1995, sanitation workers belonging to the Valmiki community were hired by sanitation inspectors in the municipal bodies. After their application was accepted, they would be given temporary status for two to four years, following which they were made permanent. In the 1996 and 2009 recruitments, a lottery system was introduced to hand out permanent jobs.

In 2012, the state government introduced new rules for recruitment which added the requirement of an experience certificate. Around 20,000 Valmiki community members were hired during this recruitment.

Story continues below this ad

In 2018, 21,000 sanitation workers were recruited in Rajasthan on the condition of having an experience certificate. During this recruitment, non-Valmiki workers too were taken in, provided they provided adequate certificates. This, for the first time, led to the appointment of upper castes as sanitation workers.

What happened in the 2024 recruitment?

In March, when the recruitment notification was issued, sanitation workers of the Valmiki community objected, demanding preference be given to their community. The government then issued a corrigendum which said that only experience working in municipal bodies would be considered valid, effectively filtering out non-Valmiki communities since most do not work as sanitation workers.

Also Read | The pandemic has exposed India’s dirty truth: a broken sanitation system

However, non-Valmiki communities challenged this in the Rajasthan High Court, arguing that sanitation work experience in hotels, schools or other organisations should be considered. This, they said, was according to the Rajasthan Nagar Palika (Safai Karamchari Sewa) Rules of 2012.

The High Court accepted this argument and ordered the government to recruit as per extant rules.

Story continues below this ad

How has the state government responded?

The government has stopped the recruitment process following the strike by Valmiki workers, assuring Valmiki leaders that they will look into the matter.

Deputy Director (Administration) at Directorate of Local Bodies, Vinod Purohit said that the government is trying to amend the rules of 2012 rules of recruitment so as to give Valmiki workers a preference.