Baripada, May 26: A woman sanitary worker sweeps roads carrying her 11-month boy on her back.

The unprecedented scene was caught by denizens residing in the Baripada town in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district.

Laxmi Mukhi, a contractual sweeper engaged in the Baripada Municipality is heading two heavier tasks simultaneously. She is performing her duty by cleaning public places in the wee hours around the week. At the same time, she is doing her bit as a responsible mother, carrying the baby on her back during the whole working hours. Be it a bitter chill or a scorching sunlit day of mid-summer, Laxmi sweeps on the streets, cleans the drainage networks and maintains the sanitation of the urban suburbs, whatever she was assigned.

Laxmi, who hails from a labourer class family in Jhinei village under the Chandua police limits, is well accustomed with the dual responsibility from over six months. She headed such a challenge after his husband’s wages became insufficient to manage a four-member family with two square meals a day. She left the village and dared to earn money to supplement her husband. Since then, Laxmi has been discharging her noble duty as a house wife, a true mother and a key crew member of the sanitary team for the Baripada Urban Body.

According to Savitree Rana, Laxmi is a sincere woman sweeper who never spares a second pausing for a while apart from breast-feeding his tiny tot during the duty hours. Apart from it, her wards are comparatively cleaner and healthier than the others, for which she has been a health-partner for every denizen of her operational areas.

Answering on why she is carrying the baby everywhere she is entrusted for sanitation job, Laxmi said that she can’t handover the baby to others as nobody is truly worthy and reliable in the world of violence.

“It’s why I never spend a moment away from my cute baby, even in my job”, Laxmi added.

On the other hand, Saiprakash Mohanty, a social activist said that there is no Early Childhood and Care (ECC) Centre or provision of crèche for hundreds of working class women like Laxmi, which is a breach of Protection of Child Rights.

The government and the concerned employers should take adequate measure for temporary shelter and care of the infants during the working hours, he added.