Chandigarh, September 10
The Sirsa MP, Former Union Minister, General Secretary of All India Congress Committee, CWC member and Uttarakhand in-charge Kumari Selja said sanitation workers needed secure livelihoods, fair wages, regular employment and the right to live with dignity rather than symbolic gestures or publicity. Speaking to the media, Selja said sanitation workers did not want anyone to wash their feet; they wanted the government to ensure their rights, dignity and employment security.
Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s earlier gestures of washing the feet of sanitation workers, she said such gestures would have meaning only when their livelihoods were protected and they were provided dignified service conditions. “Do not wash their feet; give sanitation workers their rights and respect. They have self-respect too and have the right to live with dignity,” Selja said. She said the Congress favoured ending the contract system and providing employment security to sanitation workers. Those who perform the difficult task of keeping cities clean day and night deserved better working conditions, she said.
Selja urged the government to hold meaningful dialogue with representatives of sanitation workers instead of taking a confrontational approach. She said assurances given during discussions with employees should be fulfilled and their legitimate demands considered seriously.
“No worker willingly leaves work and sits amid garbage to protest. Circumstances force them to do so,” she said, adding that the government should find a concrete solution to demands related to regularisation, fair wages, job security and other issues. Selja said the sanitation workers’ agitation had affected civic cleanliness, with garbage accumulating at several places in cities. The resulting unhygienic conditions could also increase the risk of diseases, ultimately affecting the general public. She urged the government to abandon its rigid approach and resume talks with sanitation workers. The real respect for those responsible for keeping cities clean, she said, lay not in ceremonial gestures but in securing their livelihoods, ensuring fair wages and protecting their right to live with dignity.