How Safe are Guwahati Municipal Corporation Cleaners Working without Safety Gear?

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: How safe are GMC (Guwahati Municipal Corporation) workers like sweepers, drain cleaners, garbage collectors, and others working without putting on safety gear? This is a million-dollar question.

Safety gear, also known as personal protective equipment (PPE), refers to protective clothing, devices, or coverings that are worn to reduce the risk of injury or illness.

A garbage collector said, "We get a set of safety gear like boats, gloves, jackets, etc., at the time of getting the job. After that, the corporation doesn't provide any safety gear sets. When the set we get gets worn out and becomes unfit for use, we have to work without boats and hand gloves. We are exposed to a whole lot of diseases. There are incidents of pieces of glass or bottles injuring us. Let alone safety gear. We even don't get our salaries timely."

A person driving garbage collection vehicles said, "The NGOs often engage children in garbage collection. They opt for children as they don't have to pay them higher wages. The civic body needs to check such violations of child rights."

The person further said, "Often the vehicles that carry garbage, both wet and dry, don't have cover. In such cases, the garbage stinks. When we inform such matters to the NGOs, they don't want to buy covers for such vehicles. The risk of health hazards is very high when the garbage collectors collect garbage with bare hands, without gloves. The GMC needs to inspect such violations of rules regularly. We are surprised as to where the funds that come for safety gear for workers go."

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