India, May 19 -- Sweepers, hospital workers and office attendants employed with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) have protested against being assigned census duties, with their union claiming that semi-literate Grade-IV staff are being overburdened despite lacking the technical skills required for the exercise.

The Municipal Mazdoor Union (MMU), which represents over 55,000 Grade-IV civic employees, has demanded that the BMC recruit educated unemployed youth instead of assigning sanitation and support staff to census work.

"These (Grade-IV) employees are not even clerks and most are semi-literate, and many do not even have android mobile phones. Besides, these workers are on duty from 6:30 am until the afternoon and are then...