Chaudhary said this while addressing mediapersons today after presiding a meeting with the senior officials of Urban Local Bodies of Punjab to discuss the issues related to the welfare of sanitation workers. She said that Punjab is a prosperous state but sanitation workers here are leading a miserable life.

“Safai karamcharis have to struggle for uniform and salary. When they die, their families have struggle for job. The Constitution has given them the right of equality, but why they face discrimination. It seems that the state government is not taking the constitutional provision seriously,” she said.

Expressing her concern over their exploitation in Punjab, Chaudhary said there is need to recruit 19,000 more people in addition to the existing 19,000. “At present, they have to do more work for less salary and there is no job security to majority of them,” she added.

She suggested that sanitation committees should be dissolved and the government should fix minimum wages for sanitation workers. During her recent meeting with Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal she had raised the issue of dissolving the sanitation committees.

Raising the issue of the medical examination of safai karamcharis, Chaudhary said that while there are pollution-check centres for vehicles, there is no provision for medical examination of safai karamchairs in the state. She alleged that even doctors are not ready to examine them.

She informed that in the 11th Five Year Plan, she has suggested free education for the children of sanitation workers which the Central government had agreed. She said residential schemes will also be started for them.

Lauding the efforts of Haryana government, she said the government has started a drive to recruit 11,000 safai karamcharis for villages in Haryana, but there has been no such move by the Punjab government.