Kolkata rickshaw pullers posing high sanitation risk

Over 25,000 rickshaw pullers, 41% and 15% of whom afflicted with Tuberculosis/STDs and AIDS/HIV+ respectively, are communicating diseases to those who commute in the carts regularly, posing major urban sanitation problems and health hazards in Kolkata.

According to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, about 89% rickshaw pullers are homeless and 40% of them sleep in the streets/their rickshaws in the night; they urinate, defecate and spit on the road sides. This spreads the virus of their deadly diseases to the pedestrians which they are unaware of.

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