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

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”.