Over 1,500 laundry workers return to their hometowns, fearing they'll contract swine flu from the school uniforms they wash
Over 1,500 laundry workers return to their hometowns, fearing they'll contract swine flu from the school uniforms they wash
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Of the 43 people who've died in the city due to swine flu, nine are children. Scared that they'll have to wash uniforms of schoolchildren over a hundred of whom have been infected so far around 1,500 workers of smaller laundries have returned to their hometowns in UP and Bihar.
And with many more workers contemplating going back home, there are fears that soon there won't be anyone to wash and iron Pune's clothes.
We're helpless
Ramesh Pawar, partner in Ever White Laundry at Sadashiv Peth, said, "I am totally helpless, as two of my workers left more than a month ago and are unlikely to return. It's so bad that now I have to pitch in by ironing clothes for 14 hours a day." At least half a dozen laundry owners in Sadashiv Peth face a similar situation.
Shyam Masurkar from New Rajendra Laundry in Sadashiv Peth believes workers are scared of working in Pune.
"Friends and families of laundry workers have called them home and aren't allowing them to come back to Pune," he said. Masurkar has lost one employee due to this.u00a0
Heavy losses
Satish Jadhav and Sandesh Dalvi who run Rajhans Washers and Drycleaners at Mangalwar Peth feel that soon the city may not have any laundries. "We can't take as much work as we used to. We'll have to reduce our workload till the swine flu situation improves and workers return. Even though we have been providing masks and gloves to our workers, most of them fear that swine flu situation is very serious and we are unable to do much," said Jadhav.
Added Pawar, "We used to make about Rs 1,000 a day. But now we are incurring heavy losses. I really don't know how long we will be able to sustain ironing and washing clothes by ourselves on a daily basis."
Manisha Joshi, a homemaker from Shaniwar Peth, now irons her children's school uniforms every day. "My laundryman rarely comes to pick up the clothes. We can't rely on them anymore," she complained.
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