Denied benefits for pandemic work, Pune’s waste collectors protest civic body’s apathy

Congress holds BJP, which controls PMC, responsible for workers’ poor condition

After toiling throughout the successive waves of the pandemic despite peril to their lives, waste collectors of the city-based SWaCH — a cooperative of self-employed waste collectors — have protested the Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) failure to give them benefits like life insurance and dues for the work accomplished during the lockdowns. SWaCH’s unique contract system has helped the PMC save hundreds of crores of rupees. “The waste collectors have yet to receive the safety equipment, life insurance, medical assistance, and allowances in spite of written promises of corporators and councillors,” Harshad Barde, director of SWaCH, said.