Delhi's Night Sweepers Battle Dust, Exhaustion Amidst Capital's Pollution Fight

An in-depth report by The Indian Express, published on May 25, 2026, sheds light on the demanding reality of night shifts undertaken by sanitation workers and mechanical road-sweeping machine (MRSM) operators in Delhi to combat the capital's pervasive dust pollution. The article, titled 'Inside a night shift that sweeps the capital: 'It feels like I have fainted',' chronicles two nights spent tracking MRSMs across Delhi's Central and Najafgarh zones, revealing the intricate and often exhausting efforts behind the city's cleanliness drives. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has indeed intensified its city-wide sanitation and dust mitigation efforts, launching extensive 'Dust Free Roads' campaigns and mega sanitation drives across all 12 zones under the Swachh Bharat Mission. These initiatives involve the deployment of mechanised road-sweeping machines, water sprinklers, jetting machines, and dedicated sanitation teams to improve urban cleanliness and reduce dust pollution. Other reports corroborate these efforts, noting MCD's night cleaning drives in markets and major roads, with initiatives explicitly aiming for 'dust-free corridors' and 'cleaner surroundings.' However, the ground reality, as depicted in The Indian Express article, highlights significant challenges. The report details how a convoy of MRSMs begins its night shift from a parking dock near the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, forming what the article describes as the capital's 'last line of defence' against dust, a significant contributor to Delhi's notoriously poor air quality. This claim is strongly supported by various expert analyses identifying road dust as a major pollution source in Delhi, contributing substantially to particulate matter, including PM10 and PM2.5. The article vividly portrays the grueling conditions faced by sanitation workers like Saravan, 25, and MRSM driver Yasin, 35. Despite the mechanised nature of the work, much manual intervention is required. Saravan, for instance, walks alongside the slow-moving machine for approximately 30 km, guiding the driver, monitoring brushes, and manually clearing dust and obstacles with a shovel. He notes having to work 'only by covering our faces' even during peak pollution periods in winter and summer. This account aligns with broader reports on Delhi's waste workers, who often face precarious working conditions, inadequate protective equipment, and long-term exposure to dust and toxic fumes, leading to respiratory illnesses and other health problems. Drivers like Yasin describe extreme fatigue, stating, 'When I reach home, my condition is such that it feels like I've fainted,' with breaks rarely exceeding ten minutes during an eight-hour night shift. Such accounts resonate with findings that many contractual sanitation workers are underpaid, receiving less than the minimum wage, lack benefits like health insurance and paid leave, and face exploitation. Operational challenges further complicate the MCD's efforts. The article notes that PM2.5 levels in swept areas still push air quality into the 'poor' category, far from ideal. Uneven surfaces, broken road stretches, construction activity, and heavy commercial traffic at night frequently disrupt sweeping operations and can cause collected dust to resuspend quickly. An official quoted in the article mentions that the machines are often old, with some being eight years old against a typical lifespan of 8-10 years, suggesting potential issues with fleet maintenance and efficiency. The process of dumping collected dust at open sites, like in Dwarka Sector 12, before transport to landfills, also raises concerns about immediate dust resuspension. While the MCD emphasizes the deployment of advanced equipment and revised operational timings in some zones, such as shifting mechanical sweeping to daytime for better monitoring, the Indian Express report specifically focuses on the continued prevalence and challenges of night shifts, crucial for clearing roads before peak morning traffic. The NDMC, for instance, significantly ramps up night cleaning operations during special events like the BRICS Summit, deploying hundreds of workers and MRSMs to ensure major roads are clean by morning. In essence, while the Municipal Corporation of Delhi is actively engaged in large-scale sanitation and dust mitigation efforts, the Indian Express article powerfully underscores the formidable challenges faced by the sanitation workers on the front lines. Their arduous night shifts, coupled with environmental hurdles and often precarious employment conditions, reveal the significant human and operational costs in Delhi's ongoing battle against air pollution. The story is a critical examination of urban governance, environmental health, and labor conditions in India's capital.

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