Sanitation workers attached to the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) intensified their protests across key parts of Chennai, demanding job security, reinstatement of duties, and payment of pending wages, even as police detained several protesters at multiple locations, including near Omandurar Government Hospital on Anna Salai.
According to a newsreport, sanitation workers gathered near Omandurar Government Hospital after a day of protests that began in the morning of Tuesday, 30 December 2025, with an attempted siege of Anna Arivalayam, the headquarters of the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. Police intervened early, preventing the march and detaining protesters. Later in the day, fresh demonstrations were held near the Kalaignar Memorial at Marina and subsequently on Anna Salai, leading to repeated arrests.
The agitation, which has been ongoing for over 130 days, began in July 2025 against the outsourcing of sanitation work in GCC Zones 5 and 6 to private contractors. Workers allege that they were informally barred from work without written orders, resulting in months without wages, mounting debt, and repeated police detentions. Despite a court-ordered eviction of a prolonged sit-in outside the Ripon Building, the protests have continued, including rotating hunger strikes since November, during which several women workers were hospitalised.
Protesters said they are now seeking reinstatement under the GCC self-help group system rather than permanent government employment, citing what they describe as exploitation by private contractors. While the GCC employs around 7,000 sanitation workers directly or through self-help groups, more than 14,000 workers are engaged through private agencies.
On Tuesday evening, police repeatedly detained workers who sat or lay down on Anna Salai in batches of around 25, loading them into vehicles. Within minutes of one group being removed, another group would resume the protest, leading to severe traffic congestion and heightened tension in the area.
Several sanitation workers spoke emotionally about their situation during the protest. One of them who was arrested outside Anna Arivalayam said, “We are dying here. Our demands have not been met, it is more than 5-7 months, we have had no work, sir. They are looking at our caste. They are looking at our caste. They are looking at us as low caste, as Dalits. Is everything nice only when you want our votes? Is it bitter when you have to give us work? Will you be quiet if your family women are on the road like this? Is what is happening good? What kind of a rule is going on? It is a cruel regime.
Another said, “They themselves told us first signature will be for the sanitary workers. Five years are about to be completed. He took our votes and has kept us without work for five months. How are we supposed to eat? How are we supposed to eat? Did we ask for a government job? Did we ask for some higher post? We only asked for the job of collecting garbage. He is saying he will not give us our job back – is that fair? Next time how will he come back? How will he come back with 3,000 votes? When he knows us so well and still does this to us, is this fair?
A woman worker, breaking down during the protest, said, “We are not able to pay school fees, not able to pay college fees. We are not even able to open our mouths about the house rent. Our life itself is gone. Our peace is gone. Either put us in jail. I am ready to struggle every day, so put us in jail. At least we will be able to lie down peacefully in jail. Put our families also in jail. We cannot go on like this. We absolutely cannot. We want our jobs. Tell us clearly in words: we want our jobs, we cannot continue without work. The lives of 2,000 families like ours are finished. Every time you only come and keep arresting us; then why don’t you just send us to jail instead of dumping us in some wedding hall? Why do you keep us in a wedding hall? From 6 in the evening till 12 at night you beat and drive us away, chase us like dogs, why do you chase us like that? Are we not human beings? Back then during Corona, you showered us with flowers, and now do we look like garbage to you? Do we look like garbage now? We want our life back. We want our job back. We are not going to just disappear because we are jobless. Please, put us in jail, you will gain punya by doing so; lock all of us up in jail. Otherwise, you tell us one decision clearly: are we supposed to live or die? We cannot continue like this.”
Another protester directly named DMK ministers, stating, “Nehru and Sekar Babu have snatched away our jobs. They are arresting us – why should they arrest us? Who are they to arrest us? For these 21 days, whatever I have been going through, if anything happens to my life, they will be responsible.”
Source: DTNext
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