Road Sweeping is a thankless job in Greater Hyderabad

Muncipal Corporation of Hyderabad has rechristened itself as Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. We take pride that Hyderabad is a happening city and hence felt the need to add "Greater" to feel better. Or the City became Bigger and seemingly Better and hence Greater.

Some of the fundamental functions of a Municipal Corporation is maintaining civic amenities - clearing garbage, sweeping the roads, maintaining the roads etc. I am aghast at the way we sweep the roads by engaging groups of women and giving them brooms. In the last twenty odd years, I have seen no attempt, no innovation to improve this broom. The small improvements that I have noticed are that these women have been wearing jackets for a few years with MCH logo and some of them who sweep in the night wear jackets with luminous stripes so that the drunken drivers and avoid them and ram their expensive cars into the dividers. I feel extremely sympathetic to the plight of these poor women earning their living by sweeping the roads with a SHORT BROOM.

Why can' t we have a broom with a long handle (like the broom used to rake and gather dried leaves)?
Are they given a short broom so that they bend their back and supposedly sweep more efficiently? This is more like memsaab appreciating the baiye because she bends and sweeps the dirt out of the nooks and corners.
Have any studies been done in MCH, departmentally or by third party, on the long term health problems and the effects on the spine / vertebral columns of these workers?

It is appalling that no one in MCH, not even the venerable IAS special commissioner nor the politically elected councillors, thought of the productivity improvements by the use of a broom with a long handle that will reduce the strain on the backs of these women? By the way, many of these commissioners and councillors have taken the opportunity at taxpayers expense to go abroad and see how cities work and introduced things like metal garbage boxes, luminous road signs, new bus stop designs in their own special way that achieves the intended purpose partially. The design of the side walks in Hyderabad really take the cake and must be the work of the mason with little or no input from the contractor and the MCH engineer and this item deserves a separate blog entry. The MCH's engineers' jobs must be so cool that they dont have to design anything leave alone the ergonomic considerations in design and no wonder that the flyover at Panjagutta collapsed because these engineers could not see that the contractor was taking risks with the scaffolding that was supported only on soil instead of concrete blocks.

Are we so insensitive that we don't feel anything for the plight of these women?

The Chandrababu Naidu's government introduced night sweeping of the roads and through contractors and roads used to look clean during that time that visitors to the city used to comment on that. Now, the roads themselves are in such a bad shape that people dont notice the dirt and filth on the roads when they are busy bracing themselves as they travel through the next ditch or pothole.

I think there is a great opportunity for the Y S Rajasekhar Reddy's government to provide long handled broom to the road sweepers and show these workers and the citizens that their government cares for the poor and is keen to improve the working conditions of the poor and show that they are ready to improve productivity and efficiency.