Unending woes of street sweepers
Two DCC sweepers at workPhoto: STAR
Street sweepers are often reviled for the nuisance they create by leaving a choking, eye-watering cloud of dusts behind them when at work.
Love them or hate them, those men and women in green are probably some of the few people who work hard to keep the city clean and hygienic for its dwellers.
They all wear distinctly marked green uniforms provided by the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC). Equipped with brooms and sweeps, they clean the dirt left by millions of city dwellers in the neighbourhoods.
To do that, the 7156 cleaners of the municipal authority start their job at 4am in the morning and finish by 8am. They are engaged with street sweeping along with waste collection and disposal activities.
According to DCC sources, there is less than one cleaner per thousand populations in the city.
And it is not going to increase anytime soon, thanks to the run-of-the-mill pays and poor facilities.
Moreover, many of the Dhaka City Corporation cleaners have not had a regular salary for years. They complained that for years they have struggled under a 'master roll' before getting on to a regular pay roll.
"I have spent 32 years of my life sweeping Dhaka streets. I started getting the 10th grade salary from 1983," said Jalil Hossain, a grey-haired cleaner at Shyamoli.
Out of them, around 6500 work on city streets. Only 2500 of them enjoy a monthly pay package. The others have to deal with the insecurity of being paid only on a daily basis, DCC sources said.
While visiting the Zone 7 of the DCC, it was found that around 61 cleaners are supposed to clean an area of around six square kilometres within four hours of duty.
"We help keeping the city clean. But in the end its more like an odd job as the payment is meagre," said Hosne Ara. "Only eleven out of the 61 of us are included in the regular pay roll. Others have been on the master roll for years."
According to DCC sources, the sweepers are paid in two categories -- the government scale of 10th grade and on a daily labour basis.
"The daily payment is called the 'master roll' that amounts to Tk. 75 for each hour. The amount for the 10th grade employees are a bit over Tk 3,000 per month," said an official at the conservancy department of DCC.
"How would you expect us to provide for our families with a monthly salary of only Tk 3000," said Jamal, a cleaner from Karwan Bazar. "And the salary has remained virtually same for decades now. This is not at all acceptable with skyrocketing prices of the essentials," he said.
"That is not all," said another cleaner from Karwan bazaar. "We do not get any kind of facilities from DCC whatsoever. If we miss an hour or two from our work hours, it is cut from my salary.
"Even if I pass away, my family will receive an allowance of only around 4000 taka. How inhuman is that," he said.
Majority of the sweepers are compelled to do other odd jobs elsewhere during the rest of the day. Female cleaners mostly work as domestic helps. Male cleaners sell vegetables or work as shopkeepers by the roadside.
Also, despite the fact that a hefty number of the cleaners are women, they are deprived of most facilities offered in any other jobs including maternity leave or other rights.
The 'Scavengers and Workers Union' have been advocating for pension rights for cleaners for many years now. Those on the 'master roll' have also been demanding a regular and secure monthly wage.
According to an official at the conservancy department of DCC, they are very recently trying to make provisions of maternity leave for the female sweepers.
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