Right now, Chennai’s sanitation workers, who have been working on the frontline through many of the city’s disasters, including the Covid 19 pandemic - are on the streets themselves, forced to protest for their basic rights. The Tamilnadu government’s ongoing process of handing over sanitation services to private contractors, threatens the livelihoods, dignity, and the health of the already under protected and underpaid sanitation workers, leading to deepening exploitation by the system. 

We condemn this move in the strongest possible terms.

Sanitation is not a business. Handing it over to profit-driven private companies adds to the existing issues - lack of proper safety gear, inadequate pay, inhuman working conditions and public apathy. This move perpetuates further exploitation of Dalit and marginalised communities who have historically borne the burden of this work.

Privatisation will not “modernise” Chennai. It will push thousands of families into deeper poverty and make sanitation work even more unsafe.

Our demands from the government:

1. Immediately stop all privatisation plans in sanitation and waste management.

2. Recognise and regularise all existing sanitation workers as permanent government employees.

3. Provide living wages, protective equipment, and health benefits to every worker.

4. Engage in genuine dialogue with workers’ unions instead of bypassing them.

Tamil Nadu has a proud history of standing for social justice. Let us stand with our sanitation workers now and uphold our values.