Sanitation workers usually ride, drive, or push garbage trucks while collecting trash and fecal matter from people’s residences and workplaces. They carry out valuable tasks of tidying up communities by collecting waste and ensuring its safe or proper disposal. Sometimes their job entails washing toilets, emptying septic tanks and dustbins, operating pumping stations, cleaning and unblocking sewer lines, and working in sewage treatment plants. Despite their work efforts, sanitation workers are not adequately compensated, and their tasks are often accompanied by a range of risks, some of which are life-threatening (Sabale, 2017). Apart from human feces, sometimes sanitation workers come across needles, sharp blades, small pieces of glass, and other piercing objects in the drains or garbage, which occasionally injures them. In most instances, sanitation workers earn even less than $7 for a risky task. Such occurrences have made them underprivileged, marginalized, discriminated against, and disadvantaged members of the community who undertake risky jobs without legal protection or protective equipment, and usually contravene their human rights and self-respect.
Reference
Sabale, S. D. (2017). The plight of safai/sanitation workers in Pune City: Issues and challenges. Research Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 8(4), 424-432. Web.