About three dozen contractual labourers working as ambulance drivers and their assistants at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) fire station have raised concerns over not being provided with protective gear. This personnel handle suspected Coronavirus patients landing in the city and ferry them to hospital. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, they have been doing the job without face masks or hand sanitisers.

A prominent report in this paper highlighted how one ambulance driver said that since the Coronavirus outbreak, the passengers suspected to have contracted the virus are sent to Kasturba Hospital in Chinchpokli in the ambulance. These employees assist them to board the ambulance and alight at the destination. Some of them, sneeze and cough in the ambulance.

It is shocking that these contractual labourers have not been provided with the most basic protective measures. This is exploitation at best, and criminal at worst. When we pride ourselves on being 'ready' to fight the virus and claim that we have isolation spots ready plus whatever else is needed for combatting COVID-19 why do we forget this most elementary measure? Or, is it overlooked because these are contractual labourers with no rights?