Gudia is not willing to send her husband Puran Kumar to clean the sewer which she calls “a well of death”. But Puran, who works as a sweeper and is a member of the Valmiki community from Aligarh, says he has no other option.
The family of seven, including Puran’s two sons, two daughters, and a 90-year-old mother, survives on around Rs 14,000 per month, and has been living in Delhi for 25 years. Each dive into the sewer earns Puran anywhere around Rs 300 to Rs 500. “I am scared to do this, but what else can I do? This is how I earn some extra money to survive in Delhi…Last month, I fainted while cleaning a sewer in Munirka. But thank god, a fellow saved me.”
