Tirupur reopens creches for sanitary workers’ kids

Coimbatore: Almost a week after the video of a sanitary worker’s child being seated in a dustbin while its mother cleaning the road near Valipalayam in Tirupur went viral on social media, the Tirupur corporation has reopened the creches for the sanitary workers’ children in the city.
A corporation official said, “The creches, which are run by us along with the NGO SAVE, saw 11 children at Poyampalayam in zone 2 and 16 at Kovil Vazhi in zone 3 when they were reopened on Friday. Saturday also saw the same number of children in both the facilities.”
He said the children would be provided healthy food, including fruits and eggs, twice a day. “Precautionary measures like physical distancing and wearing of face masks are followed at the creches .”
The official said the creches, which were inaugurated about two years ago, were temporarily closed in March following the Covid-19 outbreak.
The Tirupur corporation said they had recruited contract sanitary workers for zone 2 and 3 as the number of permanent workers was less. “We have provided them safety gears and instructed them to follow the government guidelines for keeping Covid-19 at bay,” it said in a press statement.
It also clarified that the video was taken when the worker was returning to her house after completing work. “We have issued a notice to the concerned contractor, who was also directed to ensure that the workers wear safety gears.”