sewers

15 Years Later, Govt Scheme to Rehabilitate Manual Scavengers Has Made Little Progress

The government’s obstinate denial of the existence of manual scavengers is proving to be detrimental in making any real progress.

The Self-Employment Scheme of Liberation & Rehabilitation of Scavengers (SRMS) is one of the most important government interventions for manual scavengers. Implemented by the National Safai Karmacharis Finance and Development Corporation (NSKFDC) more than ten years ago, it is far from meeting its goals. Launched in 2007, the objective of SRMS was to rehabilitate manual scavengers and their dependents in alternative occupations by 2009.

Following the enactment of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation (PEMSR) Act, 2013, the scheme was revised in November 2013 until 2016-17. The Act prohibits insanitary latrines, manual scavenging and hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks. The scheme has since then has been extended periodically, with very little outcome progress.

The government’s obstinate denial regarding the existence of manual scavenging is proving to be detrimental in making any real progress. Even though the mobile app launched in December 2020 to identify existing insanitary latrines and manual scavengers engaged therein has had 6,000 cases uploaded, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MSJE) told the Rajya Sabha that it could not confirm the existence of any insanitary latrines, concluding that the practice of manual scavenging does not exist anymore. However, this does not correlate with the findings of Census 2011 that 26 lakh insanitary latrines existed.

Further, it is important to remember that while manual scavenging under Section 2(1) (g) of the PEMSR Act, 2013 is defined as the lifting of human excreta from insanitary latrines, it is not just limited to dry latrines, but also applies to cleaning sewers, septic tanks and railway tracks as India has not fully mechanised these processes yet.

The MSJE though, while maintaining that there is no report of people currently engaged in manual scavenging, has also reported in the Lok Sabha the death of 340 people involved in the cleaning of sewers and septic tanks in the five years before December 2020. Engaging persons to clean sewers and septic tanks, whether they are called manual scavengers or sanitation workers, by definition violates the PEMSR Act 2013, which prohibits hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks.

Additionally, last year the government informed the Lok Sabha that up to November 2021, two surveys conducted in 2013 and 2018 had identified 58,098 eligible manual scavengers. This is severely understated as the 2018 survey was conducted in only 170 identified districts in 18 states, leaving out data from 11 states.

The MSJE said that all identified eligible manual scavengers have received One-Time Cash Assistance (OTCA) of Rs 40,000 per head amounting to Rs 232.39 crore as of March 2021. However, only 2.7% and 31.3% of total identified manual scavengers have received the capital subsidy and skill development training respectively. State-wise data shows that in Uttar Pradesh, a state with the highest number of manual scavengers (32,473), only 2.4% have received the capital subsidy. As many as seven states have not disbursed any capital subsidy at all. Even states like Maharashtra and Assam that have significant numbers of manual scavengers (6,325 and 3,921 respectively) have not disbursed any capital subsidy.

Abysmally low achievement against skill development training and capital subsidy indicates that the government has not been able to fulfil the long-term objectives of rehabilitation of manual scavengers in terms of sustained livelihood. Further, considering the level of physical progress and how many manual scavengers out of already understated data have been left out of capital subsidy and skill development training, a reduction in budget allocation for the scheme makes little sense.

An analysis of the budgetary resources available to the SRMS and NSKFDC clearly indicates their inadequacy to rehabilitate and empower manual scavengers. Although the scheme saw a gradual increase in fund allocation and utilisation post the national survey on manual scavengers in 2018 from 2017-18 to 2019-20, the utilisation declined substantially in 2020-21 (Figure 1). The allocation has also declined since then, and the 2022-23 budget saw a decline by 30%.

Figure 1: Status of Budget Allocation and Fund Utilisation under SRMS (In Rs crore)

Source: Compiled by CBGA from Union Budget Documents, various years

Interestingly, the budget allocation for NSKFDC (Figure 2) which is supposed to implement various other loan and non-loan-based schemes for the welfare of safai karamcharis and manual scavengers, has also declined by half. As per the MSJE’s response in the Rajya Sabha, funds amounting to Rs 192.16 crore have been released by the ministry to NSKFDC in the last five years before December 2021.

During the same period, NSKFDC has utilised Rs 211.84 crore (including funds spent out of the unspent balance of previous years). This suggests that underutilisation has not been an issue by NSKFDC in recent years. In spite of that, the allocation has been halved in 2022-23. Combined the budget for SRMS and NSKFDC as a proportion of total budget allocation for MSJE of Rs 13,135 crore in 2022-23 (BE) is 0.7%.

Figure 2: Trend in Budget Allocation and Utilisation for NSKFDC (In Rs crore)

Source: Compiled by CBGA from Union Budget Documents, various years

Another important scheme under the MSJE, that could aid not just in the rehabilitation of manual scavengers and sanitation workers but lend sustainability to SRMS by breaking the intergenerational cycle, has been rationalised. The scheme, called “Pre-Matric Scholarship for the Children of those Engaged in Occupations Involving Cleaning and Prone to Health Hazards” has been merged under the Pre-Matric Scholarship Scheme for SCs and Others since 2021-22. Although the scheme had low utilisation of funds in 2017-18 (12.9%), the utilisation had picked up to around 60% in 2018-19 and 2019-20. The allocation for the scheme also picked up in 2020-21, after which it was clubbed. In the absence of disaggregated data under the Pre-Matric Scholarship Scheme for SCs and Others, there is no telling how much goes towards families of manual scavengers. This does not just reduce accountability, but also indicates the lack of commitment and focuses priority towards this group.

Apart from budgetary issues, the implementation of the scheme is further impacted by various administrative and design issues. For instance, the documentation process to avail of the loan is tedious and the documents which are required are not always available to the targeted beneficiaries. Awareness regarding the scheme, both within the government apparatus as well as among the beneficiaries, is limited, leading to its constrained outreach. The amount of OTCA is not adequate to fulfil the employment need of manual scavengers and should be increased.

In terms of monitoring and evaluation, it is a challenge to track the scheme implementation under the NSKFDC, owing to the unavailability of any information/data in the public domain. The fund for the SRMS flows through the NSKFDC, and its budget allocation and utilisation is only reported in the Union Budget. The scheme budget is not reported in the Detailed Demand for Grants (DDGs) or SCSP at the state level, or through any separate Management Information System (MIS) as in the case of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) or Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), thereby making any state-level budget analysis difficult.

Therefore, to strengthen the SRMS scheme, it is very important that first and foremost, all the manual scavengers in the country are identified and a regular state-wise database is maintained for the same. Disaggregated budget data for different levels of the government needs to be provided in the public domain for transparent implementation and monitoring. It is also necessary to make changes in the SRMS guidelines to address the bottlenecks constraining the utilisation of allocated budgets. Improvement in physical progress will also improve the utilisation of funds. The demand can be increased through increasing awareness regarding the scheme among beneficiaries as well as within the government apparatus. Regular monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the scheme have to be carried out to keep the outcome progress on track and increase accountability.

Jawed Alam Khan and Rahat Tasneem work at the Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability, New Delhi.

Three Men Died Cleaning Septic Tanks. Their Widows Ensured Maharashtra Gave Compensation

In a significant judgment, the Bombay HC held the state government accountable despite the fact that they were killed while working on a private contract.

Mumbai: Govind Sangaram Chorotiya, Santosh Kalsekar and Vishwajit Debnath.

These names would have disappeared, like those of innumerable others’ who are killed while cleaning septic tanks in the country, had it not been for their partners who decided to take legal recourse.

The wives of the three men – Vimala Chorotiya, Nita Kalsekar and Bani Debnath – had moved Bombay high court soon after their death in December 2019, seeking compensation and rehabilitation as guaranteed in the Prohibition of Employment of Manual Scavengers Act (PEMSA), 2013.

Calling the case “an eye-opener”, the Bombay high court, on September 17, directed the Maharashtra government to disburse compensation to the families within four weeks, in addition to furnishing an elaborate rehabilitation plan for the families.

This is perhaps the first case in Maharashtra where the court has held the state accountable when it comes to compensating family members of septic tank cleaners, despite the fact that they were killed while working on a private contract.

Bombay HC orders Maha government to pay compensation by The Wire on Scribd

Along with the compensation, the court, referring to the landmark judgment of 2014 in the Safai Karamchari Andolan vs Union of India case, has directed the state government to impose both “power” and “responsibilities” on local authorities, to ensure that legal provisions are honoured.

Although prohibited, manual scavenging is rampant across the country. Most municipal authorities nefariously engage sub-contractors in an effort to escape legal liabilities – as in this case where the three men were found dead inside the septic tank. Govind had suffered a head injury; the other two were killed after inhaling toxic gases inside the tank.

Also read: RTI Reveals Threefold Rise in Number of Manual Scavengers Despite Ban

Vimala Chorotiya, the main petitioner in the case, says the legal fight was in no way easy. “But it had to be fought for the future of my three young children, who were suddenly robbed of a parent,” she says.

Vimala, along with Nita and Bani, is also pursuing a criminal case filed against the treasurer of the housing society at Chembur in central Mumbai for engaging the deceased men in an illegal and dangerous act of cleaning a septic tank. The accused, Pawan, was booked only under Section 304 (A) of the Indian Penal Code for causing death by negligence and was let off on bail immediately.

The women, through their lawyer Isha Singh, are trying to push for relevant sections under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and PEMSA laws to be applied in the case. The Chorotiyas and Kalsekars belong to the Scheduled Castes. The Debnaths are from an Other Backward Class (OBC) community, originally from a small village in north Bengal.

Caste location

Vimala, an unlettered woman from Nagaur district in Rajasthan, married Govind when she was barely 16. The couple lived in Mumbai’s Chembur area and did odd jobs to take care of their three children. “My husband was a naka kamgaar who worked at construction sites and buildings. He never did cleaning jobs. I still can’t make sense of what must have happened and how he ended up taking up a septic tank cleaning job,” Vimala says.

However, Vimala is certain that it was simply their caste location that made it easy for the contractor to push her husband into the “gutter”.

Born in the Mochi (cobbler) community, which is classified as a Scheduled Caste in Rajasthan, Vimala says that no one in the family has ever worked as a manual scavenger.

Nita and Bani too say the same thing. Nita’s husband, Santosh, and Bani’s husband, Vishwajit, too had only worked as labourers before this incident. “My husband was a skilled plumber. But on days when he did not get any work, he would work as a loader. Cleaning toilets and gutters were off limits,” says Bani.

The fact that none of the three had even cleaned septic tanks is crucial.

“They were not equipped, their safety was not taken into consideration, and yet they were sent there to do such a dangerous job,” advocate Isha Singh points out. The women, Singh says, have been wronged on too many levels.

“First, the men were hired to do a job they have never done by some private contractor. Upon their death, the police let the perpetrators off with an ineffective FIR. The state too had shirked its responsibilities by leaving the women in the lurch,” Singh says.

Also read: Rehabilitating Manual Scavengers Must Go Beyond Reinforcing Caste Hierarchies

When the writ petition seeking compensation was filed, the government tried hard to wriggle out of it. Government pleader P.H. Kantharia had pointed to the government resolution passed by the Maharashtra state just a few days before the incident, claiming that the state is not liable to pay compensation in case such a death has occurred while working with a private contractor. The resolution passed by the Social Justice Department on December 12, 2019, states that the government would only help in the process of getting compensation from the private contractor.

“This government resolution clearly goes against the 2014 Supreme Court ruling in the Safai Karamchari Andolan case, which holds the state responsible. It is for the state to ensure that such an abominable practice is brought to an end. Failing to do so, it is on them to ensure the families of those killed are taken care of,” Singh had argued in court.

Bigger fights

The three widows say that the compensation money will ensure that their children continue their education. Months after the incident, the pandemic broke out and the women had to rely on charity to survive. Over time, they gathered themselves. Now, Vimala makes imitation jewellery with a relative to earn a living. Nita and Bani are domestic workers.

Bani, who is 28 years old, is the youngest of three. Just 20 days before her husband’s death, Bani had given birth to her second child. “I have since moved three houses as I was not able to pay rent. Now, I am living with my husband’s friend’s family who have been kind enough to accommodate us. This money will at least ensure a roof over our heads,” Bani says.

Also read: When it Comes to Manual Scavenging, Enacted Laws Have Persistently Failed

This case, lawyer Singh says, is only the beginning of a larger fight ahead.

“The state has to both stop manual scavenging and also take the responsibility of rehabilitating the families,” says Singh, who also has a public interest litigation pending in the Bombay high court. In the course of arguing her petition, she had sought information on the number of deaths caused while cleaning septic tanks and sewers. The Bombay Municipal Corporation had blatantly lied in its response. “It claimed no one died since 2014,” Singh says.

Similar claims were recently made by the Union Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry too. In response to a question in the Rajya Sabha, the social justice minister Ramdas Athawale claimed that 66,692 persons have been identified as manual scavengers in the country, but no deaths have been reported due to manual scavenging.

Singh, in her petition, has sought implementation of the 2014 Supreme Court ruling. “The apex court has given an exhaustive list of measures that need to be taken. From setting up a vigilance committee to chalking out an elaborate rehabilitation plan. But for that, the states will have to first acknowledge that there is a problem. Only then would any of this be possible,” she says.

Madras HC Says Heads of Municipalities Must Ensure No Manual Scavenging Work Is Done

The high court issued orders directing all heads of municipal bodies and corporations to sign undertakings declaring that no manual scavenging work will occur in their jurisdiction and that they will be held personally liable if it does.

New Delhi: The Madras high court on Wednesday directed all heads of corporations and municipalities in Tamil Nadu to file written undertakings declaring that no manual scavenging work will be carried out within their jurisdictions, Live Law reported.

The two-judge bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice P.D. Audikesavalu further held that, in the future, the court may pass an order requiring incumbent commissioners or heads of municipalities to furnish such an undertaking when they assume office.

The act of manual scavenging is banned under the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993 and punishments for the same are laid out in a 2013 amendment to this Act, known as the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013.

The Madras high court’s orders also included that municipality heads would be held personally liable if any individual is found to be engaged in manual scavenging work within their respective municipalities.

“There cannot be any manual scavenging at all and it will continue to be the responsibility of all municipal bodies and Corporations across the State to ensure that there is no manual scavenging activity undertaken. The Commissioners of the Corporations and the heads of the Municipalities will be personally held liable in case any manual scavenging activity is detected or any mishap occurs in course thereof,” the bench said, according to news agency PTI.

Also read: Here’s What Needs to Change for Sanitation Workers in India

The court’s remarks came while issuing interim orders on a batch of petitions seeking to put an end to manual scavenging and to ensure that those who are engaged in it are rehabilitated in a proper manner. Among these petitions was one filed by the NGO Safai Karamchari Andolan.

The court also remarked that it was “heartening” to note that no deaths of “safai karamcharis” have been noted recently. However, reports have pointed out in the past that alternative terminologies have been used to avoid the deaths of sanitation workers from being classified as “manual scavenging deaths”.

When the government told the Rajya Sabha in this year’s monsoon session that there were no deaths due to manual scavenging were reported, activist Bezwada Wilson rejected the claim. He said the statement assumes that manual scavenging only comprises cleaning dry latrines. “So, he [social justice minister Ramdas Athawale] must mention in his statement very clearly that in dry latrines people may not die but here in septic tanks people die. The government is denying everything and in the same manner, he is denying deaths due to manual scavenging,” he said.

The court also advised the state to obtain the requisite machinery or to improve the functioning of sewer lines so that manual scavenging is no longer necessary anywhere in the state. The court also added that, if any independent person is found to be engaged in manual scavenging, the heads of corporations and municipalities will still be held responsible.

The state was ordered to issue critical guidelines relating to the matter before the next date of hearing, which is slated for November 10.

(With PTI inputs)

Hyderabad: Body of Dalit Man Who Died While Manual Scavenging Still Missing 3 Days Later

Manual scavenging is banned under the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013. However, the news of these deaths show that nothing has changed in recent times.

New Delhi: On August 3, two Dalit men — Shiva (25) and Anthaiah (45) — died while manual scavenging in Hyderabad’s LB Nagar. Even after three days, Anthaiah’s body is yet to be found.

According to the News Minute, municipality officials dug up the pipeline, and even searched a nearby lake, hoping to find the body, but all in vain.

Anthaiah’s family – which belongs to the Mala community, categorised as Scheduled Caste – alleged to TNM that the officials were acting indifferently because of their caste identity. His son Nagaraju alleged that the officials are extremely negligent, and they are not making proper efforts to retrieve his father’s body.

“Since they know that we are from a marginalised community, they think that they can behave like this. No official or police have made any effort to reach out to us, to explain the situation and console us,” Nagaraju told TNM. He further told the news website that no official has made any assurance about the compensation.

Manual scavenging is banned under the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013. The amendment of the 1993 law in 2013 provided for punishment for engaging any person for hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks.

“Between 1993 and 2019, families of only around 50% of the workers who have died cleaning sewers have received the compensation of Rs 10 lakh each. In several cases, the compensation amount is less than Rs 10 lakh, ” The Wire had reported, citing a right to information query it had filed. This is despite a 2014 Supreme Court judgement that ordered states and union territories to pay Rs 10 lakh as compensation to the kin of all those who died during sewer cleaning.

According to the TNM report, the two Dalit men died of asphyxiation on Tuesday night when they were made to manually clean a flood pipeline.

Shiva was made to get into the manhole using a ladder, the report said. However, when Shiva started suffocating, the contractor called Anthaiah who was working near another manhole. Anthaiah got down the manhole and was able to push Shiva out, but he too fell sick and collapsed inside.

The contractor, B. Yellaiah, who hired the duo, was booked under sections of under the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 and 304 A (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code, TNW reported.

Also read: Across Waves of COVID-19 in India, Sanitation Workers Remain Most Ignored

Centre’s denial on manual scavenging deaths

Last week, Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale on July 28 told the parliament no death has been reported due to manual scavenging. Instead, he said that there have been reports of death of persons while cleaning sewers or septic tanks.

It shows that the government does not identify deaths due to manual scavenging and instead calls them deaths due to hazardous cleaning of septic tanks and sewers.

He further told the parliament that despite the strict implementation of the provision of The Prohibition of Manual Scavenging Act 2013, a survey showed that 58,098 persons were identified as manual scavengers. He further added that of these 58,098, all the eligible people have been given one-time cash assistance and released from this work.

The response drew sharp reaction from activists who said that those people were being robbed of dignity even in their deaths.

Bezwada Wilson, the national convener of Safai Karmachari Andolan, an organisation working to eradicate manual scavenging told PTI that the government’s denial on deaths due to manual scavenging is a “modern form of untouchability — ignoring the life of a Dalit”.

Between 2016 and November 2019, 282 people have died while cleaning sewers and septic tanks in the country, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment had told the parliament.

In February, according to a Times of India report, a 37-year-old man, registered as a sweeper with the Maddur town municipality in Karnataka, died by suicide, because he was allegedly forced to clean a manhole.

The news of these deaths show that nothing has changed in recent times.

Also read: Why the Proposed Manual Scavenging Prohibition Bill Looks Good Only on Paper

“These failures manifest themselves first in denial. They [governments and municipalities] refuse to acknowledge disease and death, hence elementary compensation, guaranteed by the earlier Bills, is rarely ever provided to the victim’s family,” said an analytical piece published on The Wire.

The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation (Amendment) Bill, 2020, which proposes to completely mechanise the process of cleaning sewers and septic tanks and provides a legal basis for compensation to be provided for fatalities, awaits cabinet approval. However, according to the analytical piece, the new Bill continues to tread the same flawed path as its previous versions of 1993 and 2013 with little to no effect on providing any help to sanitation workers.

Seven Manual Scavengers Died in Seven Days. Why Is There Still Silence?

If we refuse to even acknowledge manual scavenging, how are we ever going to stop it?

We need to think about why a Dalit has to clean sewers or septic tanks by hand when the rest of the society is not expected to do any of such work. Credit: Reuters

What a beginning to this new year – seven manual scavengers have died in the first seven days of 2018. On January 1, five workers in Mumbai were fixing a sewer line which ran 10 metres below ground level. While being lifted back by a crane, the cable broke, which is not surprising at all, and three of them died on the spot. One worker died the next day and the only surviving worker broke his legs and underwent surgery. In another case, three manual scavengers died on January 7 in Bangalore while cleaning a choked manhole at a residential apartment.

D.V. Samuel of the Safai Karmachari Andolan pointed out that the government does not even consider the sanitation workers cleaning septic tanks and sewer lines as manual scavengers. An alarming number of sanitation workers regularly die due to toxic gases from the human waste that they manually clean by going inside septic tanks and sewer lines. If we refuse to even acknowledge manual scavenging, how are we ever going to stop it?

There is another blind spot in these cases of sewer deaths – the victims’ caste. Most media reports on the deaths in sewer lines and septic tanks do not mention the caste of the workers. However, it is no secret that most of the sanitation workers in our country are from those castes that are regarded as ‘untouchable’ by Hinduism. While our constitution prohibits forcing Dalits to do any demeaning work, many of them still continue to be engaged in sanitation work and manual scavenging. The practice of manual scavenging is banned under the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Act of 2013. But in cases when the worker involved is a Dalit, the practice of manual scavenging also violates the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989 with its amendments of 2015.

Also read: To End All Forms of Manual Scavenging, Laws Must Be Better Implemented

Rarely do sewer deaths lead to these Acts being invoked. After the recent deaths of two manual scavengers while cleaning a sewer line in Thangadh, Surendranagar district in Gujarat, the chief officer of municipality of Thangadh was charged with violating the 2013 Act prohibiting manual scavenging and the SC and ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. However, this is very uncommon. Most of the cases of sewer deaths get buried or hidden under various non-serious charges. The Mumbai police, for example, is smart enough to avoid pressing proper charges. In the case of the January 1 death, the Mumbai police booked the crane operator under IPC section 304(A) for causing death by negligence and arrested him. Even when three manual scavengers died in a septic tank in Malad East last year, the police used the same section 304(A).

The Mumbai police is also good at finding the least powerful person to file a case against. In the case of the Malad deaths, the police did not charge the property owners who had hired those workers. Nor did the police mention in its report anything about the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which was responsible for providing sanitation services in that area. The police found the only surviving worker, who could have died himself had he not been away for some chores, responsible for the three deaths. In the case of the January 1 deaths, the police found the crane operator guilty, arrested him immediately and charged him with Section 304(A). But the police has only “managed to trace the contractor“ so far and has not arrested him yet because it is wondering, in the words of deputy commissioner of police Navinchandra Reddy, “whether the contractor can be held liable for these deaths”. The Mumbai police knows one thing very well – the person who has money is never guilty.

Coming back to the seven deaths in seven days, it is noteworthy that the two incidents happened in Mumbai and Bengaluru, and not in some remote rural or tribal area where sucker machines might not be available. It is, therefore, important to question why these deaths still occur. Why is it that the BMC, the richest municipal corporation in India, does not care for the lives of those who work for it? Why is it that the people of Bangalore, who can come together to stop the construction of a flyover to save some trees, cannot come together to save some human lives? Why are they still sending manual scavengers down manholes? Do these people consider manual scavengers to be disposable – born to serve them and then die for them?

Why is the government outsourcing a dangerous work to contractors who hire informally and then escape instead of owning responsibility? Credit: Reuters

We need to think about why a Dalit has to clean sewers or septic tanks by hand when the rest of society is not expected to do any of such work. Who is forcing the Dalits to remain in this filthy and dangerous job, to live a life of humiliation, and then to die in an abyss – a deep and dark one, full of obnoxious smells and poisonous gases? No one cares about their deaths; no one protests when they happen. What is the reason for our society’s collective silence? Why is everyone from the prime minister, the president, chief ministers and Dalit leaders silent?

Also read: The Life of Labour: Despite Law Prohibiting it, Manual Scavenging Continues to Claim Lives

The systemic silence on the deaths of the Dalit manual scavengers means that our society also wants to let them happen. These are not accidental deaths but institutionalised and political killings. Every year, the government and people in positions of power come together to decide how much money should be put in to save these lives. This year’s Union budget will also be declared soon. The government keeps cutting down the budget without any justification. From a budget of Rs 557 crore in 2013-14 for rehabilitating manual scavengers, we have come down to a petty budget of Rs 5 crore in 2017. This was not a mistake, but a ‘plan’ for 2017. So when we noticed that sanitation workers were dying at the rate of one every other day in 2017, it is hard to not blame the government for letting these workers die without any help.

It is also not a coincidence that the private contractor responsible for the safety of the workers in Malad fled. Why is the government outsourcing dangerous work to contractors who hire informally and then escape instead of owning responsibility? The answer is that it is, like in any other sector, a mutually agreed upon beneficial situation in which both the government and the contractors can get away with the maximum profits and least responsibilities. That is what they have learned from the professors of neoliberalism – to leave it to the market and let the poor perish and rich flourish.

So is 2018 a very happy new year for the government where they don’t have to spend any money to save these lives? Maybe the government can avoid all its responsibilities by hiring contractors for everything. The Swachh Survekshan 2018 will fail to ensure the safety of manual scavengers again. The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan will again fail to include them.

Along with new year wishes to the government, we also have a request – let us declare a day as National Shame Day. On National Shame Day, our ministers, civil society and fellow citizens can take some time out and think about how they are promoting manual scavenging. We hope that they will realise what they do by letting sanitation workers clean their septic tanks and sewer lines manually instead of using suction machines.

Sheeva Dubey is pursuing her PhD from the School of Communication at the University of Miami and Dhamma Darshan Nigam is with the Safai Karmachari Andolan.

After Fatalities, Delhi Government to Fully Mechanise Sewer Cleaning

The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by lieutenant governor Anil Baijal and attended by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and other top officials.

Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. Credit: PTI

New Delhi: After ten deaths, authorities in Delhi today decided to fully mechanise cleaning sewers and made it clear that any violation would attract punishment up to life imprisonment.

Water minister Rajendra Pal Gautam said the Delhi Jal Board CEO, municipal commissioners and the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) chairman had been asked to prepare a report within 15 days on the procurement of mechanical cleaners.

The decisions were taken at a meeting chaired by lieutenant governor (LG) Anil Baijal and attended by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and top officials of all concerned agencies, including civic bodies and the DJB.

“Directions issued for 100% migration to mechanisation for sewers/drains cleaning. Strict regime to be prepared within seven days. Intensive publicity of laid down norms for observance by contractors. Police to take stringent action against defaulters,” the LG said in a series of tweets.

The LG described deaths caused while cleaning sewers as “unacceptable”.

In todays meeting, Baijal directed the DJB CEO to prepare standard operating procedures for cases requiring emergency manual intervention as per the law within a weeks time.

Baijal also directed the Delhi police to take stringent and deterrent action against contractors violating the law.

Briefing reporters separately, Gautam said no one would be allowed to enter sewers for manual cleaning in the national capital.

The authorities will press for stringent action and may recommend punishment under Section 304 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) against agencies or private contractors behind any violation, Gautam said.

Hoardings will be put up across the city announcing the prohibitions and also displaying helplines for authorised cleaning of sewers and septic tanks so that people would not engage workers privately, he said.

“The deaths are painful and should shame us. There are instances of manual cleaning at malls, farm houses. But we do not have a proper list as of now,” he said.

Kejriwal has called a meeting with executive engineers and senior officials of the DJB tomorrow on the same issue.

Yesterday, a 45-year-old sanitation worker died and three others were taken ill allegedly while cleaning a sewer at the government-run Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital in central Delhi.

In three separate incidents over a month, nine people died in similar circumstances.

(PTI)