31-year-old Harikumar’s family of seven is holed up in a one-room, one-kitchen house in Siddhartha Colony near Vidya Peeth in Bengaluru. Married at a young age, he has three children, wife, mother and father. Harikumar works as a garbage collector. About a year ago, he was forced to sell his passenger car to meet the emergency medical expenses. After doctors advised his wife to have a C-section to manage the money, he had no choice but to sell his autorickshaw and borrow money. For the past four months, his debt has been increasing since his employer failed to pay him.
Every morning, garbage collectors collect garbage from houses in Bengaluru. Yet, they carry an invisible burden, one that goes unnoticed by the millions of people they serve. The silent agony of thousands of garbage collectors in Bengaluru is ignored, their struggles hidden from the world around them. Abandoned by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and at the mercy of contractors, the pleas of civic workers have gone unheeded for decades.
BBMP worker Harikumar and his family. | Photo Credit: Sudhakar Jain
Harikumar’s mother Peddamma broke down in tears describing the pain the family was going through on a daily basis. “I have to work to make ends meet in my old age. I am working as a housekeeper in a college. I earn ₹ 8,000 per month, of which ₹ 6,000 is spent on rent, electricity and television cable bills. The rest is used in food and miscellaneous items. Every month, we have to borrow money for the needs of the children. My son’s salary, which is collected once in four or five months, is used to pay off loans to local moneylenders. Apart from local moneylenders, we have to pay at least ₹50,000 to our neighbours,” she said in tears.
BBMP worker Sudhakar and his family. | Photo Credit: Sudhakar Jain
Pointing to his one-year-old son, Harikumar says that he cannot feed his child like a middle-class family. He cannot afford to buy toys for his two daughters who are enrolled in government schools. “Some days, I feel faint watching them play imaginary games with pencils. The pencil is a tool for both play and study.
Still, he comes to work at 7am every day and picks up the garbage from his assigned house.
In January 2023, M. Vijayakumar’s vehicle overturned in Andhra Pradesh. He had gone to participate in a local fair held in his village in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh. Due to the trauma, she suffered broken bones near her chest and back, which cost her Rs 1.5 lakh. As both he and his wife Nirmala have to work in the city, they have now sent their two children to their hometown.
As there is no regular salary, Nirmala has to bear the monthly expenses. Vijayakumar said that Nirmala worked as a helper in a printing house, she used to walk a total of 9 km. “Since I don’t get a monthly salary, I work as a bathroom cleaner in two nearby bars. But the money they give me is not enough,” he said.
Nirmala said that her husband has given up the habit of drinking alcohol and it has become another burden on her shoulders.
BBMP worker Vijayakumar and his family. | Photo Credit: Sudhakar Jain
For the past one month, a grocery store owner has been shouting at Sudhakar, another garbage collector.Due to non-payment of ration. Since the family does not have a ration card in Karnataka, they are not eligible for the Karnataka government’s Anna Bhagya scheme. Sudhakar says, ‘There is no option to take rations on loan as there is no salary. A few months ago, my savings were emptied because we had to pay for our daughter’s healthcare. What can we do in such a difficult situation?”
The crux of the problem
The root of the problem is that even though the BBMP, which has been awarded the contract for door-to-door garbage collection, has instructed the contractor to pay the salary immediately, it has not been complied with. The BBMP pays the contractors quarterly but orders them to pay the wages to the workers every month. This means that if a person wins the contract, he has to pick up the bill after three months. But till then, he has to manage the salary from his own pocket.
Talking to Tyagaraj of the Karmikara Sankarshan Trade Union (KSTU). HinduBBMP is not strictly enforced on the ground in payment of wages, and this is making the life of garbage collectors miserable. “Contractors pay after payment of BBMP. Sometimes they even keep a month’s salary due to losses. Some contractors credit salary once every four months. The contract system has failed miserably as BBMP does not ensure timely payment to workers,” he said.
The union leader claims that the contractor is not even paying the minimum wage. The minimum wage for cleaners (garbage pickers) is ₹18,000 per month, and for drivers, it is around ₹16,000. However, some workers say they get ₹7,000 to ₹15,000 depending on the contractor’s decision.
KSTU employs around 12,000 workers, and almost everyone has a life like that of Harikumar, Vijayakumar and Sudhakar. In the past few years, workers have gone on strike four times.
“Citizens take to social media, ring the BBMP bell, raise their voices if garbage is not collected from their homes. There is not the same enthusiasm when workers portray their sufferings,” said several workers. They say they have to beg from people who throw garbage. “They say dirt is gold. yes It is for the contractors, not the workers,” Tyagaraj said.
On November 4, he sat on dharna with union workers demanding direct employment. Thiagaraj said that unless the BBMP brings in workers like paurkarmis (road cleaners) on direct wages, the problem will continue. During the protests, Deputy Chief Minister and Bengaluru Development Minister DK Shivakumar promised to find a solution after the winter session of the state legislature ended on December 19.
Challenges remain
Despite DK Shivakumar’s assurances, challenges persist. BBMP had earlier issued tenders for 89 packages, but these were withdrawn due to technical issues. The contractors later challenged this in the High Court of Karnataka. The case is pending in court.
However, BBMP has floated tenders for end-to-end waste management solutions. Tenders will be given to four private companies to set up four integrated waste management plants under this system. The same companies must collect and transport waste. Now, the tender is in the pre-bidding stage, a BBMP official said.
Championed by DK Shivakumar, the scheme was announced in the 2024-25 state budget as four mega waste treatment parks on 100-acre land parcels in four corners of the city.
Garbage contractor Balasubramaniam said Hindu The tender of 89 packages has reached the final stage. This process has been going on for more than two years, and they do not accept to cancel these tenders and hand over the SWM of the city to only four firms.
Balasubramaniam said, “Currently around 232 contractors are working under BBMP. This new system will make them and their workers jobless. Revenue is promised after 18 years of investment in this project. “Is there any company that can run without profit for long? Can it?” He said that this would endanger the lives of contractors and garbage collectors and would challenge it in court.
A BBMP official discussing direct employment said the workers have been demanding this, citing the Congress manifesto that promised 25,000 direct jobs. The government has so far recruited 15,000 civil servants and 10,000 are still left.
“BBMP has no accurate data on who is working on the land, to get them on direct payment. The names mentioned in the book by the contractors may not be working on the land. At present, the contract system is suitable. Even if the contractors register their relatives, they hire others. PF, ESI A portion of the benefits and salary goes directly to their relatives,” the official alleged.
The official said that it is a matter of policy, if the Karnataka government directs the BBMP to employ them directly, the civic body will do the same. However, the government has not given any instructions on this so far. Once the case is decided in the HC, the BBMP can release the tender,” the official added.
published – December 20, 2024 at 07:00 hrs IST