Sanitation workers exit in droves, trash piles up in Gurugram

GURUGRAM: A civic and humanitarian crisis is quietly unfolding in Gurugram.

- Leena Dhankhar

In its upscale apartments and gated colonies, the signs are everywhere — uncollected garbage, stinking corridors, and families scrambling to manage chores. Over the past week, hundreds of sanitation workers, domestic helps, and daily wagers — many of them migrants from West Bengal and Assam — have left the city amid a police verification drive targeting alleged illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

What began as a law enforcement exercise has spiralled into a civic rupture, exposing how deeply Gurugram’s daily rhythms rely on an invisible workforce now fleeing the city.

Fearful of harassment and arbitrary detention, many have packed up overnight and left, disrupting core civic services and pushing both resident welfare associations (RWAs) and the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) into crisis mode.