Superhumans In The streets

Hyderabad's sanitation workers played multiple roles during the pandemic

- Rahul Devulapalli

Sarojanamma, 50, had been hit multiple times by speeding bikers in the past. “Those riders escaped. What can I do?” she asks. “If the injury is minor, I just continue my work.” One such accident left her with a serious and permanent injury to her back. Still, she ensures that her duties are discharged. For more than two decades, Sarojanamma has been a sanitation worker of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. She sweeps the road and clears trash in the Erragadda area in western Hyderabad.

The pandemic made her work tougher. Sometime in late 2020, she tested positive for Covid-19. After spending almost a week in a government-run Covid-19 hospital in Hyderabad, she was back on her feet. “When I got discharged, I told my supervisor I can start work immediately, but he insisted that I should take rest,” she says. “I was weak, but I felt the need to work during this period.”

Sarojanamma, in a way, epitomises the spirit of the sanitation workers of the city. The city employs around 25,000 sanitation workers—a mix of permanent and contract workers. When Covid-19 cases spiked in Hyderabad city, the workers rose to the occasion.