‘How long will we wait?’: Four Chennai Cleanliness workers begin second hunger strike after months without jobs

CHENNAI: For J Vasanthi, life has come painfully full circle. On Monday morning, she spread a thin mat on the floor of a small trade union office in Ambattur and quietly began a fast unto death. This was not the first time she had taken such a step. In July, she went six days without food, demanding that she and her colleagues be reinstated as cleanliness workers under the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC). When the strike ended, the women staged a sit-in outside the Ripon Building from August 1, but they were removed by police on August 13 after a Madras High Court order.

Now, after more than one hundred days without work, and with growing financial strain at home, she has once again chosen the only form of protest she believes still carries weight.

“We have been jobless for one hundred and nine days,” she said, her voice tired but determined. “For fifteen years, we worked through cyclones, floods and COVID. Now we eat once a day, and my daughter has dropped out of college. What more can we lose?”

Alongside Vasanthi sit three other women: P Jenova, S Bharathi and J Geetha. All four are affiliated with the Uzhaippor Urimai Iyakkam (UUI) and were once permanent faces in the Corporation’s sanitation workforce. Their jobs were disrupted after the GCC outsourced solid waste management in the Royapuram and Thiru Vi Ka Nagar zones.

The new fast began after the Madras High Court granted conditional permission, instructing that only four women can participate at a time, the protest must be held within the four walls of the Ambattur office, no structures may be erected, and daily medical checks are compulsory. Up to fifty visitors may meet them, and police presence has been deployed for security.

Inside the office, supporters arrive in silence. The women sit with only water bottles beside them. Geetha said welfare schemes cannot replace job security. “A meal is not a job. We need our work back in the Corporation,” she said. As dusk settles, the women continue their fast, hoping the city will listen. “How long will we wait?” Vasanthi asked. “As long as it takes.”