Hisar: The ongoing strike by sanitation workers in Haryana entered its thirteenth day on Wednesday (May 13), leaving major cities across the state choked with garbage, overflowing dumping stations and streets littered with mounds of waste. With no resolution in sight and the government repeatedly failing to address underlying issues, the situation has been worsening by the day.According to reports, more than 30,000 municipal workers from several cities in Haryana, including Hisar, Karnal, Sirsa, Rohtak and Gurgoan have been on strike since May 1, 2026. They have refused to carry out civic services like sweeping the roads, lifting garbage or cleaning sewers.With cleaning services like night sweeping also completely halted, the state is struggling with a massive waste management crisis, with tonnes of accumulated garbage effectively paralysing residential and commercial areas.Who is striking and why?Sanitation workers organised under the banner of the Haryana Sarv Karamchari Sangh, have walked off the job, vowing to strike until their demands are met. On Monday, May 11, the workers announced that they were extending their strike until May 14, blaming the state government’s inaction in addressing their concerns.The workers allege that despite repeated assurances, the government has taken no concrete steps to alleviate sanitation workers’ condition. “The government’s indifference forced us to protest. We are fighting not just for ourselves but for justice and dignity,” Raj Kumar, president of the Karnal Municipal Employees Union, told the Tribune.Union members have stressed that their intention is not to inconvenience the public, but to press for their demands, which have been pending since 2018. They added that if their demands were met, workers would work around the clock to restore cleanliness in the cities.The demands revolve around three key tenets: regularisation of contractual work, better wages and fire-service demands.The contractualisation of sanitation work has for long left workers without recourse, decent work conditions and wages or job security. Most contract workers are hired through exploitative third-party agencies to whom government departments outsource the job of routine maintenance and cleanliness. As a result, they have no choice but to work for deplorably low wages in hazardous conditions.Sanitation workers have been demanding regularisation for years. “The government has promised to regularise these workers many times, but every time no promise was fulfilled,” Kumar told the Tribune. “This betrayal has left us with no option but to strike.”The second demand concerns wages. Workers allege that they are being paid below the legally mandated minimum wage, a violation that has persisted despite multiple complaints. The continuous neglect of the state government towards this demand speaks to how little bargaining power sanitary workers have in matters that directly impact them.The last demand involves fire service employees, who fall under the ambit of the municipal corporations. Their long-pending demands for better safety equipment, martyr status and monetary compensation for deceased employees as well as improved social security benefits have been clubbed into the strike’s list of grievances.Also read: Workers Protests Highlight the Fault Lines That the State Must AddressThe government’s responseThe state administration’s response to the strike has been poor. Instead of coordinating with the workers, it has defaulted to enforcement manoeuvres. Duty magistrates have been deployed to monitor the situation. Special cleaning drives using tractor-trailers and JCB machines have been launched to clear garbage from what have been deemed “sensitive areas” – locations that are politically significant or pose health risks.For instance, according to a Tribune report, ahead of Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini’s visit to Sirsa on May 15, large scale cleanliness drives were organised by the city administration. The municipal council conducted special drives at eight points across the city, lifting nearly 200 tonnes of garbage. During the operations, 14 employees were reportedly taken into custody for trying to prevent the drives.Similarly, instead of resolving the dispute, administration hired new private labour to clear garbage outside the Sanatan Dharam Mandir in Karnal, where a government event was supposed to be chaired by Vidhan Sabha speaker Harvinder Kalyan.There has been no meaningful dialogue between the state government and the protesting workers. The agitation continues with no positive response from the administration, either to take accountability or address workers’ grievances.Backlash from oppositionCongress and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leaders have slammed the Haryana government for its persisting apathy in resolving the situation. While addressing the protesting sanitation workers of Hisar Municipal Corporation, INLD patron Sampat Singh said that government’s “empty claims” of Swachh Bharat and Smart cities have been reduced to mere slogans and asked that it should immediately hold talks with the workers’ representatives.“Due to the stubborn and insensitive attitude of the state government, about 40,000 contractual sanitation workers working in 88 municipal bodies have been on strike for the past eleven days. But the government has failed to initiate a meaningful dialogue with them,’’ he added. Singh further claimed that sanitation workers have not received salaries since April, compounding their financial distress. He demanded that two Faridabad municipal corporation fire service employees who died on duty should be granted martyr status.Congress leader and former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the Leader of Opposition in Haryana Legislative Assembly, extended his support to the striking sanitation workers on Monday, saying their demands were legitimate and should be swiftly settled via dialogue. Hooda alleged that the BJP government was deliberately avoiding the crisis, although the situation was deteriorating each day. “Piles of garbage have accumulated everywhere and rains have increased the threat of dangerous diseases,” he said.Brijendra Singh, a Congress leader and member of parliament representing Hisar in the Lok Sabha also complained about the crisis in a public message he wrote on X:Haryana is on the verge of health emergency as tons of garbage is heaping on roads owing to strike by sanitation workers since 10 days.Similar pictures are surfacing from Hisar, Fatehabad, Faridabad, Gurgaon and other cities.Haryana Government should immediately step in to… pic.twitter.com/NGd2lC0jqh— Brijendra Singh (@BrijendraSpeaks) May 11, 2026What tactics have workers and the government adopted?Women workers in several districts staged a “thali bajao, sarkar jagao” or noise protest to stir the government out of inactivity. In Karnal, protestors took out a march through parts of the city, dumping waste on a road leading to the Karnal Districts and Sessions Courts.On their part, workers marched from Karnal’s municipal corporation office to the mini secretariat, holding brooms and walking through the city’s main markets, informing residents about their demands. In Jhajjar, workers burned effigies of the government and the district municipal council. Protest marches and sit-ins were also organised in Ambala and Hisar.The Hisar municipal corporation brought in JCBs to lift garbage from market areas, which the sanitation workers reportedly prevented by surrounding the vehicle and raising slogans. The corporation failed in its efforts due to the protest.The employees also organised multiple sit-ins near garbage collection points, even holding an overnight vigil to press the government into accepting their demands.The Safai Karamchari Association in Hisar allocated over 40 workers to different sites across the city, directing them to not allow the government to clear trash. Surender Kumar, president of the association, said that they received a tip-off that the government was planning a night operation to clear the garbage. In response, the workers “formed teams which remain in contact with one another via phone, and have been instructed to alert nearby members if the authorities arrive with police”.Sanitation work occupies one of the most essential yet least acknowledged and socially stigmatised positions in Indian civic life. Despite the work being physically and mentally demanding, workers face pervasive discriminatory behaviour and remain chronically underpaid and unprotected by governmental policies.Moreover, the sector overwhelmingly relies on marginalised communities, reproducing caste and class inequalities. Under the National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem (NAMASTE) scheme, roughly 92% of identified workers belong to Schedules Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Classes.The strike, and the government’s subsequent response to it, has revealed how even the most basic protections and dignities are systemically denied to those who carry the onerous burden of making urban areas liveable.