When someone else cleans up our mess

On my way to work, I often cross the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s bright green truck picking up garbage from designated collection points. There are four such points through my 2-km route in Mumbai’s coastal suburb of Bandra. Usually, three to four staffers load the garbage on to the truck, sometimes collecting it with bare hands, and at better times, they are equipped with plastic gloves and boots. With ‘Clean up’ painted in big black letters in Hindi on the truck’s body, I see this vehicle as a positive symbol of city life, making way for a hygienic day ahead.

One morning, I was amused to see certain behaviour.

The staffers were working, busy dragging big dustbins closer to the stationary truck, upturning and emptying them into the back. A group of people was walking ahead of me. As they crossed the truck, they sunk their noses into their elbows or cupped palms and two of them even scowled at the staffers blaming them for raising a stink.

Weren’t the staffers doing their job, and that too efficiently without blocking anyone’s way? Aren’t these staffers making our city, our environment, livable? Aren’t we, the recipients of the garbage disposal service, the generators of that garbage? What if the garbage collection truck didn’t come for two days? What if no staff was commissioned to collect waste from our societies ?

Do we recognise the work of these staffers? Do we call them by their names instead of casually referring to them as ‘kachra wala (garbage man)’ or ‘kachre wali (garbage woman)’? Is it difficult to bear a few seconds of foul smell without scowling so that the staffers are less conscious of the difficult environment they have to operate in for hours together, every day, for a living?

Later in the day, I sat down thinking why they did what they did: The thoughtless scowl and the misdirected disgust.

I believe a part of this apathy towards garbage collection workers comes from the fact that as a society, historically, we’ve always had someone else to do things for us, someone else to clean up our mess, someone else to fix things for us. How many of us do our own work at home? To start with, do we make our own beds? Or keep our plate back in the kitchen after eating? Or scrub the floor clean after accidentally dropping something without expecting someone else to do it for us? Or clean our toilets post use? Or wash our own inner wear? There can be a long list of such fairly obvious and spontaneous actions.

When we step out of our homes, the apathy often manifests itself in disrespectful behaviour. The moment we check into a hotel or restaurant, we believe that the housekeeping staff and the waiters are our servants.

Collectively, as receivers of service in society, we need to show way more empathy and sensitivity. Dignity of labour stems from our mindset.

Tomorrow morning, when I cross the bright green truck, I will show a cheerful thumbs up and shout a loud thank you to these staffers. They’re as integral a part of our social fabric as any other service provider.

COLLECTIVELY, AS RECEIVERS OF SERVICE IN SOCIETY, WE NEED TO SHOW WAY MORE EMPATHY AND SENSITIVITY