Few sanitation workers getting training, info on health checkups: Survey

Sanitation workers and rag-pickers face risk from the handling of unmarked medical waste emerging from homes where Covid-19 patients are quarantined

India has now reported more than 1.5 million Covid-19 cases, making it the country with the third-highest number of cases in the world after the US and Brazil. But even as the contagion surges across the country, sanitation workers continue to be inadequately protected, noted a report based on a telephonic survey of 214 sanitation workers in five states and two metros by two independent researchers. It found:

• Nearly 64% of 188 sanitation staff who worked during April-May 2020 received no instructions or training related to their safety