The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
After gruelling court battle, Pune waste-pickers get dues of `7.5 crore
A FEW days back, Shital Girmakar (40), a waste picker from Kalewadi area of Pimpri Chinchwad, managed to clear her home loan and get back the ownership of her house, something which Girmakar had almost given up on. “This was possible only because the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Commission (PCMC) at last paid our long pending dues, though we had to fight a long and hard battle to get what should have been legally ours,” said Girmakar. The victory though came at a price--32 waste pickers had died while waiting for their dues to be paid.
The case had its genesis in 2016, when Kagad Kaach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPKP) moved the court of the deputy labour commissioner due to non-payment of minimum wages. Aditya Vyas, secretary of the union, had explained how between December 2012 and May 2013, and between June 2013 and June 2015, a total of 310 waste pickers were not paid as per the Minimum Wages Act.
The accumulative dues in both the cases came to be about Rs 7.5 crores. Vyas said the union had decided to move the court of the deputy labour commissioner to fight this case.
The deputy labour commissioner had ruled in the favour of the union in 2023.
PCMC has outsourced the work of door-to-door waste collection to another agency who in turn employs the waste pickers of KKPKP. But Vyas explained that as the principal employer, it was the duty of the PCMC to ensure minimum wages are paid and also the dues be credited to their accounts.
Vijaya Ashok Chavan, one of the waste pickers, had regularly attended the hearing for the case which was filed in 2013.
Chavan, who is a waste picker herself, said she had to go for a hearing once a month or twice a month even if it meant being absent for work.
“We were asked questions about the nature of our work, about payment we got and we answered them. The verdict proved that our stance was correct,” she said. Two separate cases were filed--one in 2013 and the other in 2017. Both verdicts came in favour of the waste pickers in 2023.
But it took one whole year for the corporation to start releasing the money. “Our members had started planning on what they would do with the money--but administrative delays at various levels saw the process of transfer being delayed,” said Vyas. The standing committee of the corporation (which now functions without any public representative as the time frame of the body had lapsed two years back) had given the green signal for the transfer of money in February but actual dispersal started only last month. Till date, Rs 6.7 crores have been transferred to the accounts of waste pickers.
Like Grimakar, Rekha Sapkal (30) also got dues worth Rs 2.7 lakh. Sapkal has paid off her dues with Rs 1 lakh and the rest she has converted into a fixed deposit with the union. Pallavi Naikwadi (40) being the legal nominee of Vishwanath got Rs 2.5 lakh as unpaid dues. A resident of the Nigdi, Vishwanath was a victim of the Covid-19 pandemic. “My husband had made plans to clear off the loan but before he could see the battle reaching fruition, he passed away," she said.
As waste pickers now rejoice at this hard battle won, they do spare a thought for the 32 waste pickers who did not survive the long struggle against PCMC, also known as the richest municipal corporation of Asia, thanks to the concentration of industries within its limits.