Labour file:
Manual Scavengers The Forsaken Lot of Modern India
Even after 71 years of the so-
called independent India, the
feudal practice of manual
scavenging is existent in our
‘civilized’ and “modern India”.
Neither the fundamental rights of
equality supposed to have granted
alike to all citizens of India by the
Constitution nor their directive
principles nor the banning of
manual scavenging in 1953 nor
even the recent act of 2013
prohibition of employment as
manual scavenging and their
rehabilitation act-could bring any
betterment in the lives of manual
scavengers economically or
socially.
The acts made to prohibit the
normal scavenging proved to be
merely an eye-wash and show-
piece acts aimed to hood-wink the
external world to show that India
too is a civilized modern country and
a progressive country.
The normal scavenging of
literally carrying the human excreta
is existing in rural India as well in
certain low-class towns throughout
India, more particularly in northern-
states.
The manual scavenging in
other forms is existing in rural India
and in various other forms in urban
India. The municipalities, municipal
corporations and governmental
institutions like Indian railways are
employing manual scavenges to
attend scavenging works of menial
nature and hazardous nature.
Manual scavengers are the
worst exploited and down-trodden
workers in India rejected of their
human dignity.
Neither in the present days of
‘Ache Din’ and ‘Swatcha Bharat’
being grandly touted by the NDA
rulers, nor strictures made by the
Supreme Court could bring any up-
22
lift in the economic and social life
of these manual scavengers.
Added to this every day we are
witnessing more and more deaths
of manual scavengers while
cleaning drainages in cities and
towns of our country. Despite the
provisions of 2013 act prohibit
“individuals, local authority or
agency in engaging or employing
for hazardous cleaning of sewers
and septic tanks” the semi-
governmental institutions like
municipalities and railway are
engaging
them
through
contractors, disregarding the law-
with that they are not only evading
from their statutory responsibility of
paying the scavengers with
minimum-wages specified by the
government but also are avoiding
to attend to the safety of workers
and providing safety gear to
workers engaged in hazardous
work of cleaning sewers and septic
tanks. No attention what even is
paid for the safety of these manual
scavenging (sanitation) workers
and their lives are taken away
simply for maintaining the so-called
civilized world. More and more
incidents are being reported of
workers dying in septic tanks and
drainage cleaning though the
municipalities, corporation and
railways are the ‘principal
employers’ of these manual
scavenging and sanitation workers
who are responsive for payment of
statutory wages, safety and
payment of lawful compensation in
case of work-place deaths, they
are simply evading their statutory
responsibility by saying that they
would take action against
contractors, who are responsible
to it- which they never do. This is
nothing but will full culpable
negligence on the part of the
‘principal employers’ who have out
sourced the works through
contractors, and they must be
severely punished.
According a recent report
prepared by the National
Commission of Safari Karma-
charies (NCSK), in a period of each
five days a Safari Karmachari-
Worker(manual scavenger) is
being killed in India, while cleaning
drainages or septic tank. But in
reality the number of deaths of
these workers is far more than
mentioned in the report. Very rarely
those who killed in this manual
scavenging work are being paid
with statutory compensation
payable to be them.
Even the society do not pay
required attention to the plight of
these manual scavengers. The
traditional trade union centers
have failed long back in taking up
the cause of the manual
scavengers
seriously
and
abandoned them. Another sad
reality is that even though there
are umpteen dalit organizations to
represent the interests of the down
trodden dalits, these organizations
seldom take up the cause of
manual scavengers, who are dalits
suffering with utmost poverty
indignity and the worst oppressed
of the society. Thus they are left to
the pity and charity of some NGOs
for taking up their cause.
The governmental institutions
like the Safari Karmacharies
Finance
and
development
corporations are practically of no
help for the manual scavengers in
looking after their welfare.
The irony is the ‘survey’ under
taken by the central government
‘task force’ couldn’t estimate the
number of manual scavengers
existing in India as on today, and
the survey is proved to be a mere
farce. Almost such ‘surveys’ were
Class Struggle