I don't think I've ever put a picture of a street sweeper on the blog. From what I understand street sweepers are of a certain caste that can only sweep streets (no other jobs) and unfortunately are seen as the lowest caste. I have only seen female sweepers. Street sweeping is done manually, with a stick broom, even on highways. It is a back-breaking task (although I'm sure their backs are very strong and used to the slumped position, after years on the job). As you can see in the picture, brooms in India are not ergonomically friendly:) Even brooms used in the home are made in this design (except out of dried grass) causing the person sweeping to stoop over. I've never seen a push broom. As anyone who has swept knows that the job of sweeping is never ending...these ladies have job security in any economy.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Street Sweeper
Posted by Colette Frazier at 9:23 AM
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1 comments:
I agree. Street sweepers are as much of blue collar workers as the folks in the construction sites. Thus they need a similar access to big equipment, especially when we're talking about wide-scale street cleaning that is inevitable soon as outdoor festivities hit. We would need that kind of contingency. We cannot brush this aside.
Haaker
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