Every morning after I wake-up my duty is to keep the correct dustbins at the door i.e wet on Monday and Thursday exclusively, and other days both wet and dry. These are instructions from our Taleigao Panchayat. The boys and young men who carry these dustbins are not Goans but ‘outsiders’. Most of them do diligent work and are well behaved. These workers have to go about emptying dustbins every morning, their duties shifting depending upon the availability of the Panchayat services. Whenever the person was doing excellent work I used to give them tips to show that they have performed well or gloves to some of them, who were collecting garbage with their bare hands.
It seems that the Panchayat did supply both the gloves and masks (in this pandemic) but these workers have a habit of keeping their gloves in their pockets. A few of them used to even forget to use their masks. I make it a point to see that anyone collecting from my house promptly uses both gloves and masks as safety precautions. Despite the challenges they face, I have seen that all of them are very gently behaved and sorting of garbage is done on the spot very carefully. Probably, the Panchayat have given their instructions. I’ve often seen them carrying the garbage big container with a number of bags hanging sideways since the garbage gets full in the area. I always had the thought in my mind to alleviate their sufferings by asking the Panchayat to take some steps to improve this garbage house-to-house collection process to make their life easier.
Today, it occurred to me that since as Herald’s Citizen Journalist, I have seen other letters sometimes bear fruit, this forum might be of use in this case too. This is a request to all readers to ensure you segregate your garbage well. Not just following the letter of the law and separating wet and dry garbage, but ensuring that any item that could be hazardous, like broken glass, a sharp needle, opened tin can lid, etc are wrapped safely before being tossed or else handed to the collection boy separately so he doesn’t accidentally get hurt.
On this aspect, I take an opportunity to also bring to notice of the sarpanch and panchas and even MLA of Panjim Atanasio Babush Monserrate the issues faced by these hard-working poor members of our society. Please help to alleviate the challenges they face while collecting garbage, dragging these heavy boxes, especially in areas with high slopes like at Dona Paula. One day who knows their spine may get damaged. I think it should be possible to have a small mechanised wheeler to shift the garbage to a nearby sorting area and these guys will be able to perform their duties diligently.
