Page 66 - 15OCT2018E

COLUMN

They die cleaning our

sewers, do we care?

THE LAST lmost everyone knows it’s il- households dispose of their wastes in dry
legal. Yet it happens so often
latrines or drains, which also are cleaned by
WORD that neither media nor general these collectors. The 2011 Census counted
public or the people in author-
over 1.82 lakh families that had at least one
ABDUL WASEY A ity bother to take note of. Going member employed in this ‘profession’.
by the latest numbers collated by the Na- Manual scavenging is not only a caste-
tional Commission for Safai Karamcharis, based but also a gender-based occupation
the statutory body that was set up by an Act with 90 per cent of them being women.
of Parliament for the welfare of sanitation Households with dry latrines insist for fe-
workers, one person has died every five males for cleaning work instead of men as
days, on an average, while cleaning sewers they are located inside the house. A Human
and septic tanks across the country since Rights Watch report recently pointed out
January 1, 2017. that women, on an average, get paid as lit-
The Employment of Manual Scavengers tle as between 10 and 50 every month per
and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibi- household. It is much less than men who
tion) Act, 1993 and the Prohibition of Em-
ployment as Manual Scavengers and their
Rehabilitation Act, 2013, do not help much If the law on manual
as they are openly and regularly violated.
According to the Section 7 of the latest Act, scavenging is to
a violation may result in two years of jail or be effective, the
fine or both. Under the provision, no person,
local authority or agency should engage or penalties must be
employ people for hazardous cleaning of
sewers and septic tanks. Mechanised clean- uniformly and
ing of septic tanks is the prescribed norm. visibly enforced
But who cares?
Even the high-profile sanitation cam-
paign ‘Swachh Bharat’ has done little to alter earn up to 300 a day for cleaning sewers.
ground realities when it comes to cleaning Increasing awareness or better educa-
of sewers. Six people died while cleaning tion have so far not done much in chang-
sewers in the national capital in 10 days, ing the attitude of the society. If sewage
highlighting official apathy towards the treatment plants had been the answer to
issue. Situation in other states of the coun- the problem, the rise in manual scaveng-
try is not much different. As per the Minis- ing deaths should be reason enough to be
try for Social Justice and Empowerment, the disappointed. Indira Khurana of Safai Kar-
country saw 300 manual scavengers die in machari Andolan once rightly said, “Eradi-
2017. Of these, 12 deaths occurred in Delhi cation of manual scavenging needs a sur-
and 140 in Tamil Nadu, which was the high- gical strike. A mission for total eradication
est. Nothing has changed since then. of manual scavenging and rehabilitation
The Socio-Economic Caste Census of of manual scavengers needs to be set up.
2011 records the presence of 740,078 house- The Centre must spell out a detailed, time-
holds where waste and excreta is cleared bound and transparent action plan with a
out by manual scavengers. This number monitoring and accountability framework,
does not include the septic tanks, public even if sanitation is a state subject.”
sewers and railway tracks which are also
mostly cleaned by them. Moreover, 21 lakh LETTERS@TEHELKA.COM

TEHELKA / 15 OCTOBER 2018 66 WWW.TEHELKA.COM

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