• Thursday, March 28, 2024

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Modi government says no manual scavenging deaths in India, slammed

An Indian manual scavenger cleans a manhole in New Delhi, India. (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)

By: Shubham Ghosh

ACTIVISTS were up in arms after the Indian government on Friday (30) told the parliament that no death has been reported in the country owing to manual scavenging.
According to the critics, people were being robbed of dignity even in their deaths and accused the government of hiding the reality.

Manual scavenging is banned in India under the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013.

In response to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Union minister of state for social justice and empowerment Ramdas Athawale said more than 66,000 manual scavengers were identified but added that no deaths were reported due to manual scavenging.

The government does not identify deaths in septic tanks and sewers as those caused by manual scavenging and instead calls them deaths due to hazardous cleaning.
In March, when the parliament was last in session, Athawale had said the same about deaths related to manual scavenging. “No deaths due to manual scavenging has been reported. However, there have been reports of death of persons while cleaning sewers or septic tanks,” he had remarked.

The activists were furious over the government’s response to the question over recording the deaths caused by manual scavenging. Bezwada Wilson, the national convenor of Safai Karmachari Andolan (cleaning staff movement) which works to eradicate manual scavenging, said the minister had in the past admitted that 340 people had died while cleaning sewers.

Modi government says no manual scavenging deaths in India, slammed
Indian activist and Ramon Magsaysay Award winner Bezwada Wilson (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)

“Now, he is making a statement technically and thinking manual scavenging as dry latrines. So, he 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,” Wilson, a Ramon Magsaysay Award winner, told PTI.

“It is not fair on the part of the government. When we kill these people we must have the courage to say that it is due to some kind of mistake that we are going to prevent. The government is denying the fundamental right of dignity to these people and is not even counting the deaths. It is a modern form of untouchability — ignoring the life of a Dalit,” he added.

Sanjeev Kumar, the secretary of Dalit Adivasi Shakti Adhikar Manch (Dalit tribals right to power platform), told PTI that the number of deaths is anyway underreported and the government denying it completely is highly condemnable.

“In Delhi alone, there have been so many such deaths. It is very sad that the government is not acknowledging their deaths. Those who lost their lives are being robbed of dignity even in their deaths,” he said.

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