City Profile

Tirupati, a pilgrim city home to the Tirumala Venkateshwara Temple, is the administrative headquarters of the Tirupati district, Andhra Pradesh, with a population of about 2,87,482 (2011). The temple city of Tirupati has taken up some targeted initiatives towards sanitation worker safety and dignity. Tirupati bagged the first rank in the “Safaimitra Surakshit Shehar” programme in October 2022.

Challenge

The city had about 60% sewerage network with 8500 maintenance holes in 2020. It also had an operational STP-FSTP cotreatment facility. Before 2020 the city had a fairly strong sewer cleaning and desludging fleet. Manual entry of sanitation workers was common, leading to many accidents in sanitation service delivery that cost human lives.

Initiative

Under the Safaimitra Suraksha Shehar programme, the city leadership strongly focused on the mechanization of sanitation services and preventing fatalities of sanitation workers caused by the manual cleaning of sanitation systems.

Tirupati enabled the purchase of sewer cleaning machinery and regular training activities. With the support of the National Safai Karamchari Finance Development Corporation (NSKFDC) & Ministry of Social Justice, the TMC provided ‘Recognition of Prior Learning’ (RPL) training to the sewer-entry professionals. The city also provided professional training to 96 members of Safai Karamachari families to equip them with professional training on UGD network maintenance.

The workers are given PPE gear twice a month, including a helmet, mask, jacket, gumboots, gloves, and face shield. This has empowered sewer entry professionals and reduced the uncertainties associated with their job. The workers are also paid an additional 6000INR as risk allowance apart from their salary of 12000 INR. The corporation also provides for their health insurance, conducts periodic health check-up programs under the e-Health services and covers their children’s education. The city also provides workers with groceries and other amenities every three months. The corporation has extended its benefits to informal and contractual workers as well.

Tirupati constituted the Emergency Sanitation Response Unit (ESRU) with 20 trained sewer entry professionals, inspection commandos, and the Responsible Sanitation Authority under the Municipal Commissioner (Magistrate). Tirupati initiated the integration of informal workers into the formal sanitation system by enabling training and skilling. Further, licenses were also issued to the desludging operators, thereby empaneling them. The city also unlocked funds for procuring and strengthening its sewer cleaning fleet through the Tirupati Smart City Corporation funds. Tirupati procured 5 Jetting and Suction machines, 9 Desludging vehicles, 12 Power Rodding and 12 Desilting machines. An ICT-based vehicle tracking mechanism was also introduced to ensure its efficient management.

Tirupati constituted the Emergency Sanitation Response Unit (ESRU) with 20 trained sewer entry professionals, inspection commandos, and the Responsible Sanitation Authority under the Municipal Commissioner (Magistrate). Tirupati initiated the integration of informal workers into the formal sanitation system by enabling training and skilling. Further, licenses were also issued to the desludging operators, thereby empaneling them. The city also unlocked funds for procuring and strengthening its sewer cleaning fleet through the Tirupati Smart City Corporation funds. Tirupati procured 5 Jetting and Suction machines, 9 Desludging vehicles, 12 Power Rodding and 12 Desilting machines. An ICT-based vehicle tracking mechanism was also introduced to ensure its efficient management.

Impact
Tirupati has transformed all the maintenance holes to promote machine entry and prevent manual entry through the initiatives taken up under the Safaimitra Suraksha Challenge. Through consistent efforts, the city established an extensive sewerage network and connection panning over 90% of the city and increased the number of machine-holes to 13720.
Through its multi-pronged approach, which includes strengthening institutions and infrastructure, providing capacity building, socio-economic benefits for the workers, and the introduction of mechanization, Tirupati was able to provide safety and dignity of labour to the sanitation workers. This has led to a reduction in deaths and fatalities of sanitation workers and led to increased accountability among the ULB officials as well as the citizens.

Note: The source of information is Tirupati Municipal Corporation’s presentation for the webinar on Safaimitra Suraksha conducted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA).