Prohibition no bar for Gujarat workers

VADODARA, March 10: In the land of the Mahatma and prohibition, the very Harijans whom he called Vaishnavjan, are encouraged to drink by ...

VADODARA, March 10: In the land of the Mahatma and prohibition, the very Harijans whom he called Vaishnavjan, are encouraged to drink by the guardians of the law. Vadodara Municipal Corporation VMC officials encourage their safai kamdars to drink, by giving them money before they dive into manholes to clear clogged sewers.

Workers of the dubki diving team, which comprises 50 persons, are paid anything between Rs 10 and Rs 100. As Government money cannot be used for buying liquor, the officials pay for it. Sometimes, the workers come drunk to work.

Top civic officials and engineering staff admit to giving workers money for liquor. 8220;After all, no sane person can enter manholes,8221; says a senior official. Workers go into manholes which are as much as 20 feet deep without oxygen masks or any kind of protective clothing.

Jagdish Solanki, a worker who cleans the drains at the Atladara sewage treatment plant says: 8220;We work in such conditions that we have to drink to fight the nauseating smell.8221;

8220;We do not get masks and gloves. If anything goes wrong, we do not get any benefits as we are daily wagers,8221; adds 25-year-old Ambalal Solanki, a daily wager.

Even those on the rolls are not given masks and gloves. The workers have to hold their breath for nearly three minutes when they clear blockages. 8220;Until they come out, we are tense,8221; says an official. Giving liquor to workers may be wrong, 8220;but then, there are no options unless the safai workers develop the will to stop drinking,8221; points out another official.

Deputy Municipal Commissioner general I B Peerzada says masks and gloves were provided to workers three years ago. 8220;But we stopped handing them out as the workers did not use them,8221; he claims.

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Municipal Commissioner G R Aloria denies that officials paid workers for liquor. However, he says programmes will be initiated to re-orient workers, while the coporation will do the 8220;needful8221; regarding masks and gloves.

Life in the sewers has taken a toll on workers, many of whom suffer from tuberculosis, respiratory infections and skin diseases. K D Dabhi, a doctor at the Government Hospital, says that every year, 25 workers are referred to the tuberculosis hospital.

Dr N C Patel of the municipal dispensary in Jubilee Baug says he is treating 30 civic employees for tuberculosis and 8220;75 per cent of them are safai workers8221;.

VMC labour welfare officer Kantibhai Solanki, who submitted a report on workers8217; conditions to the National Commission for Safai Workers, says attention needs to be paid to their education, health and pay.

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Solanki says he has already organised anti-liquor programmes. As for VMC8217;s efforts, the last health check-up of safai workers was in 1992.