Who employs those poor women?
Oct 02, 2007
<b>Letter of the day</b><br><br>EDITOR—There is an army of women who set out to sweep the Kampala city streets early every morning. I commend their effort. This is notwithstanding the altogether different issue that they are made to sweep soil off the road surfaces which then gets promptly repla
Letter of the day
EDITOR—There is an army of women who set out to sweep the Kampala city streets early every morning. I commend their effort. This is notwithstanding the altogether different issue that they are made to sweep soil off the road surfaces which then gets promptly replaced by loose soil from the numerous open surfaces by the rain run-off!
The problem I would like to focus on is that the women are made to go about their business in total disregard of health and safety rules, which places their lives at serious risk.
These women do not wear any reflective clothing at all, neither do they use any road markers to demarcate where they are sweeping so that motorists can steer clear of them.
The result is that many of them have narrowly missed being run over by motorists hurrying about in the early morning rush to take children to school and getting to workplaces in time. Who employs these women? Can't their employer provide them with at least reflective clothing and road markers to afford them basic protection?
This is not to mention that they are not protected from the dust they stir up, as well as that stirred up by passing vehicles, and yet some of them work with babies strapped on their backs at such ungodly hours, and in such risky circumstances.
Is the labour watchdog aware of these women being made to work in such unsafe circumstances? If so, can they please do something to better the plight of these women!
James Moses Omara-Ogwang
Kampala
EDITOR—There is an army of women who set out to sweep the Kampala city streets early every morning. I commend their effort. This is notwithstanding the altogether different issue that they are made to sweep soil off the road surfaces which then gets promptly replaced by loose soil from the numerous open surfaces by the rain run-off!
The problem I would like to focus on is that the women are made to go about their business in total disregard of health and safety rules, which places their lives at serious risk.
These women do not wear any reflective clothing at all, neither do they use any road markers to demarcate where they are sweeping so that motorists can steer clear of them.
The result is that many of them have narrowly missed being run over by motorists hurrying about in the early morning rush to take children to school and getting to workplaces in time. Who employs these women? Can't their employer provide them with at least reflective clothing and road markers to afford them basic protection?
This is not to mention that they are not protected from the dust they stir up, as well as that stirred up by passing vehicles, and yet some of them work with babies strapped on their backs at such ungodly hours, and in such risky circumstances.
Is the labour watchdog aware of these women being made to work in such unsafe circumstances? If so, can they please do something to better the plight of these women!
James Moses Omara-Ogwang
Kampala