Chennai Corporation enlarged its contract frontline workers since the pandemic second wave broke out and this is evident in the operations in the Teynampet zone.
One recent morning, there were close to 75 young men and women attending the daily briefing session in a public space off Sri Madhava Perumal Temple, Mylapore. Their day starts with such sessions where they are given specific inputs for the area they cover.
Teynampet zone has the second largest number of positive cases but this seems to have plateaued now.
These volunteers are mostly youths who are either unemployed or have lost regular jobs due to the pandemic situation. They go from door to door to check out on the health of residents, report signs of virus infection and followup on home quarantined people.
Volunteers who used to work in 2020 say that the pay has been reduced now and workload increased due to the severity of the pandemic. They say they are here mainly to earn any form of income.
- By Kavitha Benni
