Many members of the Haritha Karma Sena, the green task force in local bodies, do not get paid enough for the service they provide, according to a reality audit report on ‘hygiene status’ carried out by the Haritha Keralam Mission and the Suchitwa Mission in 70 grama panchayats and eight urban local bodies in Kozhikode district in April.
The income of the Sena members depends on the user fee collected from houses and establishments within each local body based on the amount of non-biodegradable and biodegradable waste collected by them every month. The Sena members in 18 grama panchayats and the Feroke municipality do not earn any income, mostly because the task force is not fully functional in those local bodies and the door-to-door collection has either not been launched or is in its initial stages.
However, even in the local bodies where the Sena is somewhat functional, the earnings of the members are meagre. In 22 grama panchayats and four municipalities, the income of a member per month is less than ₹4,000 while in 25 other grama panchayats and the Payyoli municipality, the income per month ranges from ₹4,000 to ₹8,000.
The income of the Sena members is far better in local bodies that perform well on the waste management front such as Unnikulam, Cheruvannur, Koorachund, Olavanna and Azhiyoor grama panchayats, Vadakara municipality and Kozhikode Corporation. The Sena members in Vadakara, who have earned several awards at the State-level, earn more than ₹10,000 a month while their counterparts in the other six local bodies earn more than ₹8,000 per month. These are also some of the local bodies that top user fee collected for waste management services.
The Haritha Keralam Mission and the Suchitwa Mission, as auditing agencies, have suggested that the local bodies should ensure minimum wages, safety, social security and basic facilities for the Haritha Karma Sena members for effective waste management to be a reality in the State.
