COUNTERVIEW: Ahmedabad: Wednesday,
June 01, 2016.
Is the
Gujarat government evading a Supreme Court order of 2014 on payment of death
compensation to as many as 152 manhole workers who died due to asphyxiation
since 1993? It would seem so, if a recent note by Gujarat-based non-government
organization (NGO), Janvikas, is any guide.
Prepared by
senior activist Jitendra Rathod, the note says that Manav Garima Trust, a
community organization of Valmikis in Ahmedbad, filed a right to information
(RTI) plea on December 21, 2015 to find out what exactly has happened to death
compensation.
Addressed to
the Chief Secretary of Gujarat about “actions taken for awarding compensation
and implementing mechanisms for provisions of the Prohibition of Employment as
Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013”, the note says, “The
responses under RTI Act are very disturbing as there is no clear roles and
responsibility of any department of the Gujarat State.”
The note
underlines, “Departments like Director of Municipality, Managing Director of
Gujarat Safai Kamdar Vikas Nigam, Principal Secretary of Social Justice and Empowerment
Department, Chief Secretary of Gujarat, Director of Scheduled Castes Welfare
are forwarding letters to each other mentioning that implementation of the Act
and awarding compensation on deaths of manhole workers does not come under
their departments but it comes under other departments.”
The Manav
Garima Trust has submitted to the Gujarat government a list of 152 manhole
workers, who have died while cleaning drainage without any safety devices since
1993, and written to several departments insisting on compensation.
Letters
alongside other details have gone to the Director of Municipalities, the
Managing Director of the Gujarat Safai Kamdar Vikas Nigam, the Principal
Secretary of Social Justice and Empowerment Department, and the Director of
Scheduled Castes Welfare.
It also wrote
the Gujarat Chief Minister and the Gujarat Chief Secretary on this.
Calling
manual scavenging an “inhumane practice of manually removing/ handling/
cleaning human excreta and cleaning drainage without providing any safety
measures to sweepers”, the note says, “The Supreme Court has given landmark
judgment on March 27, 2014 in this regard.”
“The apex
court directed the all state governments to identify the families of all
persons who have died in sewerage work (manholes, septic tanks) since 1993 and
award compensation of Rs 10 lakhs for each such death to the family members
dependent on them”, the note says.
The Supreme
Court barred “entering sewer lines without safety gears”, saying it should be
“made a crime even in emergency situations.” For such deaths, it insisted, a
compensation of Rs 10 lakh should be given to the family of the deceased.
It further
said that all the state governments and union territories should “fully
implement” death compensation, and “take appropriate action for
non-implementation as well as violation of the provisions contained in the 2013
Act.”
“Despite the
Act prohibiting the practice of manual scavenging and judgment of Supreme
Court, practice of manual scavenging is rampant in Gujarat and especially in
cities. There are around 200 spots where sweepers are forced to clean human
excreta every day in Ahmedabad city”, the note points out.
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