The following is an excerpt from Deepanshu Mohan, Sakshi Chindaliya and Arun Kumar Kaushik’s book Pan-India Stories of
Informal Workers During Covid-19 Pandemic Crisis Narratives published by Palgrave Macmillan (2024).
The daily hustle-bustle of safai karamcharis in Guwahati is constant, come rain or shine. Despite being one of the primary stakeholders in stopping diseases from spreading in cities, sanitation workers do not experience job satisfaction and security. They are underpaid and overburdened under the garb of menial work. To their credit, the government provides marginally better working conditions and a base salary of Rs. 8000. Considering the worker’s tenure and their unabated service in the sanitation space, they may even get remuneration as high as Rs. 38,000 per month. However, more often than not, sanitation workers in Guwahati are hired on a contractual basis. Women, especially, are employed this way since they work primarily at the household level. Safai karamcharis receive monthly payments based on the successful completion of their tasks and are forced to report to work even during heavy floods.
Pan-India Stories of Informal Workers During Covid-19 Pandemic Crisis Narratives,
Edited by Deepanshu Mohan, Sakshi Chindaliya, Arun Kumar Kaushik, Palgrave Macmilan (2024)
In India, the formal workspace is complemented by steady pay, insurance benefits and several detailed perks. Meanwhile, work in the informal sector is characterized by inter-generational skills learnt outside of the formal training systems present in the country (Basole, 2014; Gammarano & Kapsos, 2018; Sheikh & Gaurav, 2020). Sanitation work can be classified as both without entirely belonging to either, qualifying it as a blindspot for employment and livelihood policies. Betwixt and between, they are exposed to unfair wage cuts and assigned duties outside the purview of their drafted contracts. One of the few designated roles in the space is that of wet and dry waste collection, assigned to men and women, respectively. However, “during the Monsoons, the distinction vanishes in flooded urban alleys” (Harriss-White, 2017).
Unlike formal work centered in a singular space, the whole city becomes a site of intervention for the safai karamcharis. As drains span across the urban landscape, juggling between these “workplaces” while (trying to) combat intensive flooding carries its specific challenges. With the ever-rising water sitting still atop the roads, navigating through it knee-deep causes turbulence and impedes the completion of tasks. M.
Basfore questioned, “There was so much water this time. How will I go to work?” Flooding reduces visibility and makes individuals more susceptible to getting hurt. D. Basfore, a sanitation worker from Colony 4, commented, “When it rains, my mother has difficulty going to work. She has to go despite the rainfall…. There are landslides too.”
Adding to the mobility issues, the situation is made worse by a dearth of proper equipment that should be allocated to sanitation workers.
The two coconut leaves brooms, the only equipment provided by the government, are notably insufficient to fulfill their daily duties. Several interviewees commented on having to locate junk and scraps to manufacture tools to aid the cleaning process. They are forced to create unreliable contraptions using a hammer on malleable tin sheets, which are then loosely attached to a stick compelling safai karamcharis to test the odds with each use. Any additional costs for ensuring safety were made out of pocket. Despite the risks involved, sanitation workers pick up their makeshift toolkits to fulfill their job requirements. Even though the group is unionized at almost 90% across the country, the insufficient municipal budget stops them from receiving the much-needed protective equipment and health insurance (Harriss-White, 2017).
Banished to the bottom of the barrel, they are expected to survive on the scraps left behind both in terms of available resources and policy-making. Especially during floods, the minimal access to resources prevents them from unclogging the drains and washing off the sludge, which is essential for reducing water levels. This leads to a vicious cycle for the safai karamcharis; their inability to clean worsens the flood levels, resulting in severe mobility issues in the community and leaving them to deal with the adverse effects of the calamity.
Amidst the exigent uncertainties, Basfores are forced to take up alternate tasks at their work and additional jobs on the side, to ensure a sufficient income stream. Often, they are asked to clean bathrooms or pick up additional garbage-roles not mentioned in their contract. Bi. Basfore commented, “After the 2008 bomb blast in Guwahati, I was called to clean up the area including the roads and removal of dead bodies with the promise that my job will be made permanent; but I was never offered a job. The same happened during Covid times, I was asked to clean the rooms and change diapers of the patients, they promised me a permanent job and money in exchange for the work but the job was not offered. Sometimes I look forward to the floods because at least I earn consistently then.”
Even as other workplaces shut down under the emergency, none of the 32 respondents have had a day off amidst the life-threatening floods.
Elaborating on the dire conditions, the respondents from Colony 3 Ar. and Su. Basfore stated that they would be “replaced very easily if they don’t go to work for even a day or refuse to do tasks apart from the contracted work. Our livelihood will be put to a stop.” Sundays mark their only “free” days, which they spend doing any and all odd jobs to not fall into a worse economic state. These appalling circumstances are echoed across roles in the sanitation workspace.
Living Through Floods: Social Conditions of Safai Karamcharis
Despite covering all bases, at the cost of overworking themselves, safai karamcharis are struggling to make ends meet. The average income in the sample was reported as Rs. 7,015.38, less than a third of the Guwahati city average salary of Rs. 25,833. This amount is insufficient to live in cities as the average cost of living in Guwahati was reported to be Rs. 16,042 for a family of two (Mehta, 2019). The average family size recorded in the sanitation worker sample was approximately five. The income earned by safai karamcharis will be insufficient to sustain a family of two, let alone an average of five. Adding to the pressure of irregular salaries and frequent health shocks during floods, this amount is grossly insufficient even for the most senior sanitation workers. Thus, they borrow money to fulfill daily necessary requirements such as food, water, and electricity.
The lack of access to BPL cards forces sanitation folks to purchase staples such as rice and pulses at market prices, even during floods.
Drinking water is sold at Rs. 25/liter and is limited to 10 liters per household the flood situation puts a stop to this entirely. The colony residents then depend on waste-filled drains for water. Electricity prices take up almost 1/3rd of their monthly income, amounting to a large sum (Rs.
1000-2000) of their undervalued salaries. Providing for the cost of essential goods on minimal to no savings poses unceasing challenges. Lack of reserve funds forces 78% of individuals to procure credit from formal and informal sources. This includes seeking loans from individuals/ relatives (81.25%), banks (12.5%), and a combination of the two (6.25%). More often than not, safai karamcharis pays interest as high as 20%, which results in a debt trap. Minimal and unstable income streams prevent them from availing of low-interest loans from banks, even during the time of disasters.
In a related vein, unlike regular urban residents, sanitation workers bear additional costs on fixed assets, such as their homes. Owing to floods, roof leaks, and overflowing homes have been an annual occurrence over the past few decades. Yet, residents of the Harijan colonies have not been able to prepare for this due to deteriorating economic circumstances. This situation limits access to and from the colonies, trapping the residents to their locales.
The drinking water trucks have not come to this colony for the past few days, everyone is dependent on the school well. There are 200 or so families here, some with very young children. If an emergency occurs due to the floods and the rains or if my children fall sick, no ambulance can reach here, no one will think of us. If not us, I want someone to at least think of my children. Su. Basfore from Colony 3 elaborated.
Their hard work, throughout the year and amidst these surges, does not reap any benefits. Even though sanitation workers clean up after everyone, they do not have any security net to fall back on. The circumstances of safai karamcharis’ work, such as foul smells and its degrading nature, push them to consume alcohol. Unreliability of the quality of alcohol causes short-term illnesses, and prolonged intake leads to irreversible long-term effects (Rangamani et al., 2015; Sakthivel et al., 2019). The widows interviewed as a part of this ethnographic study also attributed their spouse’s demise to habitual alcohol consumption.
Gender Polarities During Floods
Flooding has been an apparent struggle for the residents of Guwahati and has “conveniently become a part of their mundane life. While a disaster does not ‘choose’ who would be worst affected, the fragile socio-ecological systems, juxtaposed with social stratification, make some more vulnerable than others (Reid, 2013). The caste, class, and gender-based hierarchical system relegates “others’ to unequal access to protective measures. Building on Kimberlé Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality
(1991), it is important to incorporate “an analytical sensibility” in thinking about identity and its relation to resource allocation. Women from lower caste backgrounds, in this case specifically, become more likely to face the ramifications of the rampant flooding (Image 2).
The ubiquitous inequalities that persist in Guwahati have left the female safai karamcharis at a significant disadvantage compared to the privileged folks in the city (Saad, 2021). Belonging to lower caste and class backgrounds, these women are forced to continue to work despite living through tumultuous floods. Some women report living with other family members in already cramped households. Regardless of the rising water levels and growing safety concerns, women are expected to travel through the waters on foot to fulfill their job requirements and earn money to sustain the household. Furthermore, women in the sample report experiencing acute discomfort while menstruating, yet having to undertake strenuous physical labor throughout the entire period. Bi.
Basfore, a forty-something sanitation worker, recounts sustaining an injury during work, yet not getting a day off. “The only item I get from my emplover is a badge with my name on it. Nothing else.”
The Assam Government specifies the minimum wage for sanitation work to be Rs. 7200 per month; more than 50% of the sample earns less than the mandate (Office of Labour Commissioner, Assa, Government of Assam, 2022). The pressure especially increases manifolds on widows as they are the only viable income source to hold the family together. Bi. Basfore, an over-40-year-old widowed mother who has been working as a sanitation worker for a significant portion of her life, remarked,
This is my mother’s home. My house is completely flooded. Out of the seven days it rains, my own house is flooding for six. I find myself oscillating between the two houses. During floods, the challenges are numerous. I keep an umbrella on me, it’s my only protection from these conditions.
More often than not, floods lead women to travel longer distances and undertake additional duties. From schools and government offices to household chores, the women in this sample have to diversify their income sources to earn around Rs. 3000 to Rs. 13,000 and support their families. This significant range of variable income is the factor of some women working at more than five locations on a daily basis to support the increased needs of their larger households. When widowed, she takes up the mantle as the breadwinner of the family putting up a tough fight against all the odds stacked against her. To the degree of the flash floods, neither an illness nor a disaster excuses them from showing up to work.
While it is true that men working in the sanitation industry have to work additional shifts as well, women succumb to a “double burden” (Friedan, 1963). Adding to the long days of underpaid work, many women return to their homes promptly to attend to a plethora of household chores. This includes catering to the nutrition and health requirements of the family that are waiting to be fulfilled and replenishing clean water stocks that are often absent in these colonies. During rains and floods, the few water streams in their closer vicinity are muddied and rendered inaccessible.
In this situation, the women of the household travel long distances with buckets and pots balanced over their heads and in their hands to collect clean, sanitary water. The patriarchal notion of gender dichotomy ascribes women as “servers” who are required to cater to the needs of their family members (Beauvoir, 1974; Bhasin, 2006). Adding to her care and nurturing duties, she is also delegated the task of keeping flood water out of her home. In conjunction with their child-rearing responsibilities, all of the above roles leave little to no time for the women to rejuvenate themselves (Image 3).
The inability to meet the requisite role assignments has dire repercussions on women, especially during a disaster episode when the stressors multiply. Studies also show that women have a heightened tendency to experience gender-based and emotional violence during floods (Bradley et al., 2021; Nellemann et al., 2011). Among other socio-economic stressors associated with flooding, the increase in alcohol consumption exacerbates the occurrences of cases of abuse. While most incidents go unreported, studies have conclusively shown a positive correlation between disasters, intoxication, and gendered violence (Bradley et al., 2021).
In the case of male sanitation workers, where alcohol intake is a part of their daily diet, the intensity of violence increases significantly during trying times (Participatory Research in Asia, 2019). The field ethnographers noted a few women who went off the record to talk about their experience with violence from their spouses. The intrinsically connected socio-economic, political, and environmental aspects that are disturbed during a disaster expose the already vulnerable group(s) to more adversity than the rest.
