Introduction:
All of us see the people doing manual scavenging
very often. This situation prevails across the country. Many are doing it for
years as their profession. Most of them are from scheduled caste, scheduled
tribe and backward classes. They also inherit this to their family members.
They are providing a crucial service to our society but they have been
neglected in greater sense and many times we see them as untouchable which is
prohibited under Article 17 of the Constitution of India. They have also right
to live with dignity as guaranteed under our constitution. Three
aspects are essential to understand and address the plight of manual
scavengers. These include, their identification, liberation and rehabilitation.
Many initiatives have been taken by civil society organization as well as the
Govt. but the issue of manual scavenging has not been tackled effectively. If
the past efforts have failed to get the maximum results then there is a need to
have new strategies to accelerate the process of change. The percent of women
engaged in Manual Scavenging is more than men; around 95% engaged in Manual
Scavenging are said to be women. They face social, economic & political
discrimination. There is no proper census on number of manual scavengers in in
India (Social Inclusion of Manual Scavengers, Report of National RoundTable Discussion, New Delhi, December 21, 2012)
Manual scavengers are usually from
caste groups customarily relegated to the bottom of the caste hierarchy and
confined to livelihood tasks viewed as deplorable or deemed too menial by
higher caste groups. Manual Scavengers are threatened if they don’t carry out
the work in several ways (Report on Cleaning Human Waste, Manual Scavenging,
Caste and Discrimination in India, Human Rights Watch, 2014)
Recent scenario of manual scavenging
Safai
Karamchari Andolan Union of India (Writ
Petition decided on March 27, 2014) is the recent case with regards to
prohibition of manual scavenging and rehabilitation of manual scavengers.
Following are highlights of the case. Writ petition filed by the petitioners as
a public interest under Article 32 of the constitution of India praying for
issuance of a writ of mandamus to the respondent Union of India, State Govt.
and union territories to strictly enforce the implementation of the Employment
of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993
seeking for enforcement of fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 14, 17,
21 and 47 of the Constitution of India. This act was enacted in June 1993
remained inoperative for about 3.5 years. It was brought into force in the year
1997. In the first instance, the act applied to the State of Andhra Pradesh,
Goa, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tripura and West Bengal and to the all Union
Territories. It was expected that the remaining states would adopt the act
subsequently by passing appropriate resolution under Article 252 of the
Constitution. National Commission of Safai Karamcharis reported that act not
being implemented.
In December,
2003 the Safai Karamchari Andolan along with six other civil society
organizations as well as seven individuals belonging to the community of manual
scavengers filed the present writ petition. Petitioners approached the court by
way of writ petition in 2003, inter alia, seeking
i.
To
ensure complete eradication of dry latrines;
ii.
To declare continuance of the practice of
manual scavenging and the operation of dry latrines violative of Article 14,
17, 21 and 23 of the Constitution and the 1993 Act
iii.
To direct the respondents to adopt and
implement the act and to formulate detailed plans, on time bound basis, for
complete eradication of practice of manual scavenging and rehabilitation of
persons engaged in such practice;
iv.
To direct Union of India and State Govt. to
issue necessary directives to various Municipal Corporations, Municipalities
and Nagar Panchayats (all local bodies) to strictly implement the provisions of
the act and initiate prosecution against the violators; and
v.
To
provide periodical compliance reports pursuant to various directions issued by
this court
For a decade various court directions and sought for compliance from all
states and union territories. Due to effective intervention and directions of
SC, the Central Govt. brought an Act called “The Prohibition of Employment as
Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013” for abolition of this
evil and for the welfare of manual scavengers
As we seen that government still failing to eradicate manual scavenging
in the country. There are many reasons for that. For eradiating manual
scavenging, we need high tech equipments so that there would be least manual
intervention to clean up the excreta, garbage etc. But biggest challenge will
be availability of resources for respective local authorities. There are two
aspects in present situation one is to prohibit manual scavenging and other is
rehabilitation of manual scavengers. For rehabilitation of these manual
scavengers, authorities must have enough funds. Supreme Court clearly stated in
Safai Karamcharis Andolan & Ors. Case (supra) that it is duty of state to
implement the act, if not then one can approach High Court of respective state.
State Govt. should come up with concrete strategy to implement the law on
manual scavengers.
“A Country should be defended not by
arms, but by ethical behaviour”.
-Meghna Sunil Kumar
Comments
Post a Comment