Machines Fail To Do Job, Men Still Clean Up Manholes

Machines Fail To Do Job, Men Still Clean Up Manholes
The Times of India

Bangalore: It still happens in swank IT City: manual labourers still go down manholes to unblock messed-up pipes. When machines fail to work, it is men who are forced to do the job.

Like it happened on Thursday on Church Street, bang in the heart of Bangalore. A labourer who was part of a group on contract with the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), shed his clothes and jumped into the manhole, into the sewage water, to clean a blocked pipe. Sans protection and mask, he unearthed buckets of waste, sewage and effluents dumped by restaurants.

The jutting machine which was supposed to do the job of connecting the pipes underground, suction the water out and decongest the pipes, lay nearby.

Says the engineer-in-charge supervising the exercise, “The arm of the jutting machine could not reach the mouth of the pipe. It is common for these fellows to do this manually.’’ When he was reminded of the consequent appalling health hazards, his stock answer: “We usually provide masks’’.

The group was assigned the job of cleaning up underground pipes on Church Street, Museum Road, Magrath Road and surroundings.

For the case in point here’s how it stands: Church Street has a high concentration of restaurants and hotels. BWSSB contractors explain that waste like dalda and leftover food are thrown into the drains, and choke up the underground drainage system during the monsoon. To clear this, the BWSSB has to periodically unclog the underground pipes. With machines and not humans.

It may be recalled that nearly three years ago, in one such cleaning operation, two labourers were choked to death. One labourer who entered the manhole was choked by the noxious gases emitted from the dirt and another worker who jumped in to help his colleague also died.

The Pourakarmika Association which is in charge of sweeping the city also sends out labourers for ‘piece’ jobs like removal of night soil. They reckon that Silicon Valley has some 10,000 such workers, engaged in manual cleaning of waste. “The agency has to provide at least a mask and medicines that will prevent diseases. First of all, there is a machine to do the work. So there is no necessity to send the men into manholes,’’ says a spokesperson.

BWSSB chairperson Pattanayak, when informed about the incident, said he would initiate methods to stop the inhuman practice. “There are areas in which machines cannot perform, humans have to do it manually, for instance in the remodelling of drains, BCC workers are forced into a similar excercise. I will ensure that we procure machines and stop manual labour.”