Unsafe heights: KMC puts on hold billboard permits

On Wednesday, Sunny Naik, along with his three friends, had climbed a scaffolding to repair the tin frame of a billboard on top of a seven-storied building in Central Kolkata.

He slipped from the scaffolding and fell to his death.

The death brought into focus the plight of thousands of billboard fixers who risk their lives every day and whose plight goes unheard.

Come rain or sunshine, these workers sweat it out everyday, sometimes climbing as high as 70 feet to put up the billboards.

Falls resulting in fatal injuries is common.

At the Selvel warehouse located at 9/5 Topsia Road near Science City, about 100 hoarding fixers work throughout the day.

“I have been working as a hoarding fixer for the past 23 years. The worst part of this profession is that there is no paid medical leave,” said Surinder Ram.

Ram has been working as a hoarding fixer for a small-time advertising agency.

Similar is the opinion of his co-worker Nikhil Das.

Both have been seriously injured after falling from a bamboo frame while fixing a billboard on EM Bypass.

“The medical bills were paid by the company only for the first two weeks. We received no financial assistance from them thereafter,” said the 40-year-old Ram.

The experience of the hoarding workers of Bowbazar’s Potuatola area is no different. “It is a risky profession. But where else do we go? It is the only source of livelihood for us,” says Karim Miya.

Karim has been working as a contractual billboard fixer for the last 30 years. His son, Keshav, wants to join the same profession.

“I am learning the job from my father,” said Keshav, who arrived from Bihar last month.