The Worst Job of All?

Posted by Kristina Cowan

At some point you might've had a gig you think is the very worst this side of the moon. Unending hours, a micromanaging boss, shabby benefits--you name it, there are issues.

I recall one job I've had that fits the bill; but after reading a Newsweek article on sewage workers in India, I am humbled, and have a new appreciation for job dissatisfaction.

According to the article, though India's constitution abolished caste in 1950, people on the lowest rungs of society are relegated to "one of the dirtiest and most dangerous jobs in the subcontinent, if not the world."

What makes the jobs so heinous?

Dirty, Dangerous and Deplorable

Newsweek examines the life of Rakesh, a 27-year-old sewage worker who is a member of the Valmiki community, which is at the bottom of India's social hierarchy. Serving as a sewage worker for the Delhi Jal Water Board for the last decade, Rakesh earns about $100 a month--and has a wife and three daughters.

By comparison, PayScale data show U.S. sewage plant operators between the ages of 25-44 earning about $18.83 an hour.

Newsweek goes on to report:

According to Santram Pradhan, president of the union representing the 8,000 Delhi Jal sewage workers, around 1,000 sewage workers have died in the past seven years. He says 200 have died from asphyxiating on the noxious gasses and drowning in excreta, and about 800 others have died from tuberculosis, hepatitis and other diseases. "Half die, half retire," Pradhan says, ascribing many of the safety lapses to the lack of concern for low-caste Valmiki workers shown by Delhi Jal Board officials. Numerous requests to interview Delhi Jal Board officials in charge of sewer workers went unanswered.

According to a BBC News article, 2.6 billion people don't have access to safe and hygienic toilets, a number the United Nations hopes to cut in half by 2015. The U.S. Census Bureau says there are 6.6 billion people on the planet. The BBC story discusses "scavengers"--low-caste workers in India who clean rubbish and human waste from open drains and streets:

Most of these scavengers are Dalits - the lowest rung of Hindu society who continue to face discrimination and prejudice. And an overwhelming 80% of them are women.

"I've grown old doing this dirty work," says Sharadah, a manual scavenger in Nand Nagri, a village on the outskirts of Delhi.

With a broken cycle-rickshaw, Sharadah and her husband head out every morning to clear away waste. Visiting about 40 houses and working for more than 12 hours a day, they earn just $15 a month - barely enough to support their seven children.

A Better Way

It's perplexing and angering to think of billions of people without a clean and safe loo--especially in light of technology's rapid-fire advancements.

A New York Times story reports:

Experts all agree that the two most important public health measures in the world, measures that saved more lives than either vaccines or antibiotics, were in place by the time of the Roman Empire: running water and toilets that carry feces safely away. But, because of the expense of pipes and plumbing, they have remained for over 2,000 years the province of the relatively rich of the world, even though measures that save far fewer lives — from cinchona bark for malaria to antiretrovirals for AIDS — have been hailed as godsends.

If toilets have been around since ancient Rome, we have no excuse for not providing them to every person on this planet.

A good place to start is with better working conditions for laborers such as the sewage workers in India--and by doing away with so-called scavenger jobs. Just the thought of a job with that name is loathsome, not to mention having to do that job on a daily basis.

We also should employ low-cost technology, as the BBC story suggests, to improve the situation.

Readers, what do you think should be done to make matters better?

• The World’s Worst Job? (Newsweek.com)
• Hourly Rate Survey Report for Job: Sewage Plant Operator (PayScale.com)
• A Sanitation Crisis That’s No Joke (The New York Times)
• India's 'untouchable' waste collectors (BBC News)

Comments

[Anonymous]

This was interesting reading and I agree that this has got to be the worst job on the planet. Despite this I can't reconcile how this article is helpful to your readers. The article details what a horrible job this is (agreed), and that everyone on the planet should have access to sanitary and safe working conditions (agreed), but you've left nothing concrete that the reader can do to resolve the situation. Was this article supposed to illustrate that life can always be worse? What is the reader supposed to do with this information?

[KristinaCowan]

Dear Anonymous,

Thank you for your feedback.

My goal with this post is to raise awareness, generally, about the salaries of sewage workers in India. While I tend to focus The Salary Reporter on the U.S. labor force, I found this story compelling enough to share, in hopes of provoking thoughts and discussions among readers.

If there are readers working for or connected to, say, the United Nations or the World Toilet Summit, they should push for better working conditions for the workers in India and for the use of technology, as I mentioned. I realize, though, that not every reader will be able to take direct action to improve the situation.

Your message has inspired me to edit the blog and add a closing line with a question to readers.

Thanks again,
Kristina Cowan
The Salary Reporter