The Delhi High Court was left “shocked and disquieted” on Wednesday when a report furnished by the Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DSLSA) showed that thousands of people, including a post-graduate, were working as manual scavengers in the national Capital.
The factual position revealed before a Bench headed by Justice B.D. Ahmed was contrary to the claim made by government agencies such as the Delhi Jal Board and the municipal corporations, which had earlier stated on oath that there were no manual scavengers in the capital.
What was more shocking was the revelation that the government agencies themselves were employing manual scavengers and not giving them even the most basic protective gear like masks, leaving them at risk of loss of vision, respiratory problems like tuberculosis, spinal injuries and even memory loss due to the nature of their work.
The report submitted by DSLSA member secretary Dharmesh Sharma stated that thousands of people were working as scavengers for DJB, municipal corporations, Railways or for contractors hired by these agencies in 30 out of 104 wards in Delhi. Among those engaged in cleaning human faeces with bare hands from unsanitary places was also a post-graduation degree holder, forced to take up the odd job due to unemployment, said the report.
“What are we doing in this country? Smart cities?” asked the Bench, completely shocked by the photographs and the report presented to it.
“It is even more shocking that one of the manual scavengers is a post-graduate. What is happening?” the Bench asked.
The High Court was hearing a petition filed by an NGO — National Campaign for Dignity and Rights of Sewerage and Allied Workers — in 2007 on rehabilitation of manual scavengers in Delhi.
The court had in May asked the DSLSA to check the veracity of the claim made by the municipal corporations on an affidavit that there were no manual scavengers in Delhi.
The para-legal volunteers who interviewed the manual scavengers reported resistance from MCD/DJB officials in the survey.
After perusing the report of DSLSA, prepared with the help of law students from Jamia Milia university, the Bench remarked, “It reveals a very shocking state of affairs. The government agencies claim there are no manual scavengers in Delhi even as the DSLSA has interviewed thousand such scavengers in a month. This completely belies the statement made by these agencies.”
“Existence of manual scavengers in Delhi despite enactment of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act is indeed a disgrace for the city,” said the court which had summoned officials of all civic agencies concerned, but granted some time on repeated requests from the government to be able to go through the DSLSA report.
The report also cited national convenor of Safai Karamchari Andolan as saying that manual scavenging is just like a business in Delhi where daily wagers are hired from States like Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar among others.
When advocate Ashok Agarwal showed a report about as many as 5 lakh people in Delhi still defecating in the open, which is then cleaned by manual scavengers, the Bench remarked, “We are a country of poor people, but not for the poor.”
(Sourced from agencies, Feature image courtesy:oneindia.com)
