"Unheard plight of Pourakarmikas"
"Food..Food is the biggest trouble maker for me. It is so for three reasons. One, It's challenging to cook food for my family early in the morning. Two,segregating food waste is a big hurdle and three, eating food I get from BBMP in the noon is the biggest risk I take. There are days where we had given it off to rag pickers as it seemed unfit to be consumed, " Vijaya (name changed) exclaimed.
​
"People throw waste on roads. Waste had fallen on me once," tells Mani (name changed) who is the sole bread winner of a family of four. "Two of my kids go to Corporation school. The older one, stopped going to school as I couldn't afford to send him to the school of his choice," she added while expressing her plight against her salary which she claimed was irregular.
Lakshmi (Name changed) on listening to this, sprung in telling how she had taken a loan of Rs 1000 and got it doubled already as she couldn't repay it due to her delayed salary.
According to Government sources, Pourakarmikas receive RS 17000 basic along with a bonus of Rs 25000, every Ambedkar Jayanthi which clearly didn't match with the reality.
​
Ramu (Name changed) who was in charge of a ward explained to us of how many couldn't avail the bonus due the lack of proper certificates and how pourakarmikas got their salaries deducted for turning up late to their job. "They will have to be here early. The machine gets locked at sharp 5 minutes after their work time begins. There were days when they lost their day's wage because of being late by seconds."
Now who is to be blamed for all of this, certificates and technology?
A sneakpeak into their residence
