The true dignity of labor

Longrangty Longchar
Mokokchung | June 28

Imagine a life dedicated to cleaning garbage in town barehanded, without a facemask or proper footwear for the past twenty-nine years. Such is the life of a Municipal solid waste worker in Mokokchung who entered the job way back in 1984.

Dilpa Gurung alias Lambu is a non-assuming person just like any ‘Municipal Solid Waste Worker’; he doesn’t know how old he is. He is illiterate, married with five children – two sons and three daughters – all grown up now; two of the daughters have married off. He occupies a one room building allotted by the Mokokchung Municipal Council which he partitioned into a kitchen and a bedroom.

He was a cowherd looking after a farm belonging to a local person earning Rs 200 per month plus food and accommodation. Then he joined the PWD and worked in a stone quarry earning Rs 300 before he finally landed as a ‘solid waste disposal worker’ in 1984. When he first joined the ‘Mokokchung Town Committee’ (back then it was not a Municipal Council) as a solid waste worker, he earned Rs 400 per month. They would load the garbage on a tractor and dispose it at town’s outskirt. Today he earns a fixed salary of Rs 4000 per month, plus a rent free one room place, doing the same old job.

However, life remains the same for him and other workers. 

The Municipal Council has given waste workers a navy blue uniform to be worn on duty. However, since it is only one piece, they have to wear other clothes on duty while their uniform is being washed and dried. Their only implement are shovels and spades.

“They (Mokokchung Municipal Council) once gave us facemasks, rubber hand gloves and gumboots, but they got damaged within a few days. And so we have to work without using them,” said Gurung. The Municipal Council had also given them helmets to be worn on duty, but the workers don’t wear it because “the helmets hinder their work.”

Interestingly, he showed a brand new gumboot which was given by the District Hospital authority with a condition: the waste workers have to wear the gumboots given by the hospital only while they clean the garbage in the hospital and must submit the boots to the sweeper in the hospital.

“We said it was impossible and therefore, we are taking the boots home,” said Gurung pointing to the gumboots which were packed in a polythene bag. He could not disclose as to how many tons of waste is being produced in Mokokchung town every day. However, he said that the waste workers, six in number make three rounds of garbage disposal on Mondays and Tuesdays on two MMC trucks. On other days, except Sundays, they make two rounds. Earlier there were eight of them working as waste workers, but two suddenly left the job and therefore, they divide into three workers for each truck.

On being asked about their health, Gurung said that he has not contracted any disease so far and added that he is up for work every day. He has no complaints at all and is satisfied with his job.

Perhaps, people like Gurung and many others in different towns and cities are given to a life of filth and dirt. Perhaps, they are just doing their job. But somehow, basic needs like hand gloves, facemasks, gumboots and all weather uniforms should be provided so that they can work more efficiently. And perhaps, if people take a moment and look at the work and life of these workers in our neighborhood, then they might understand the need to properly of dispose garbage in proper garbage dumps. After all, there is someone who takes pains to collect the garbage strewn here and there, for a paltry sum of money as their salary.