Lives of sanitation workers in pandemic: Undervalued, and battling biases

Veenu Sandhu on the undervalued essential workers who are putting their lives at risk in the pandemic

The lockdown hadn’t been declared yet when Durga rang the doorbell like any other morning. I found her sitting on the stairs, catching her breath. An elderly woman, with grandchildren, she collects garbage from homes in our locality and gets paid a small amount per house for this service. We chatted a bit about the virus that was beginning to cause some anxiety and why she needed to wear a mask. “Yes, we elderly are at greater risk,” she acknowledged as she pulled herself up, picked up the garbage bag and left with her customary “may the goddess bless you”.