{"id":3329,"date":"2020-12-10T15:30:11","date_gmt":"2020-12-10T15:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/ground_up_stories\/i-am-scared-but-i-have-to-work\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T17:09:26","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T11:39:26","slug":"sanitation-workers-during-covid19","status":"publish","type":"ground_up_stories","link":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/kn-in\/ground-up-stories\/sanitation-workers-during-covid19\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;I am scared but I have to work&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"IDR Ground Up | Sanitation workers at the frontline of India's Covid-19 response\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6HOQVDWLSeY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure><p class=\"p1 wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"s1\"><a href=\"http:\/\/sanitationworkers.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Millions<\/a><\/span><span class=\"s2\"> of sanitation workers have been at the frontlines of India&rsquo;s response to the COVID-19 crisis. Despite providing an essential public health service to residential colonies, hospitals, and commercial establishments, most work without safety gear and have no social security. Manoj and Chandraskhekhar, who have been working with the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) for several years now as a sanitation worker and driver, respectively, have a similar story to tell.<\/span><\/p><p class=\"p1 wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>Harsha Pareek is an editorial associate at India Development Review.<\/i><\/span><\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&mdash;<\/p><p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Know more: <\/strong>Explore <a href=\"https:https:\/\/idronline.org\/photo-essay-how-sanitation-workers-live-and-work-in-urban-india\/\">this photo essay<\/a> on how sanitation workers live and work in urban India.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":3330,"template":"","categories":[31,2652],"tags":[],"series":[],"meta-filter":[],"schema-filter":[743],"no-display":[],"class_list":["post-3329","ground_up_stories","type-ground_up_stories","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ground-up","category-rights","contributor-harsha-pareek","states-telangana","schema-filter-article"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Sanitation workers during COVID-19 | Ground Up | India Development Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sanitation workers in Hyderabad speak about how the lack of safety gear and social security affects their work during COVID-19.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/idronline.org\/ground-up-stories\/sanitation-workers-during-covid19\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"kn_IN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&quot;I am scared but I have to work&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/6HOQVDWLSeY Millions of sanitation workers have been at the frontlines of India\u2019s response to the COVID-19 crisis. Despite providing an\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/idronline.org\/ground-up-stories\/sanitation-workers-during-covid19\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"India Development Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-03T11:39:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/idronline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/sanitation-4.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"691\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"389\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sanitation workers during COVID-19 | Ground Up | India Development Review","description":"Sanitation workers in Hyderabad speak about how the lack of safety gear and social security affects their work during COVID-19.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/idronline.org\/ground-up-stories\/sanitation-workers-during-covid19\/","og_locale":"kn_IN","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"I am scared but I have to work\"","og_description":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/6HOQVDWLSeY Millions of sanitation workers have been at the frontlines of India\u2019s response to the COVID-19 crisis. 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