Terming the prevalence of manual scavenging in the country as "utterly shameful", National Human Rights Commission chairperson KG Balakrishnan today blamed it on "half-hearted" attempts to eliminate it and the collective failure of the system.
"More than 3,40,000 people are said to be practising manual scavenging in free India. It is utterly shameful for this country. Continuance of manual scavenging manifests violation of rights to life, liberty, dignity and equality," he said.
Addressing a national conference on 'Manual Scavenging and Sanitation', organised by National Human Rights Commission here, Balakrishnan hit out at the administration both at the Centre and state levels saying they have shown half-hearted attempts to stop this menace.
Citing provisions under 'Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Act, 2013', the former CJI said that although the supervisory mechanism has been provided in law, but it has not been implemented at any level.
"The initial task is to be done by local bodies, panchayats, and the district magistrate. In states there are supervisory committees under the leadership of any minister nominated, and MLAs form the SC ST communities. Also at the prime ministerial level there is a committee to implement provisions of this act.
"If you look at the statistics, I am sure that not a single committee ever met either under the leadership of the DM or under the leadership of the CM or the PM," he said.
M Shivanna, Chairperson, National Commission for Safai Karmacharis said that the problem persists mainly due to poverty and casteism.
Balakrishnan said, despite the ban on caste based discrimination in the Indian Constitution, and four subsequent Acts of parliament, including three that specifically targeted manual scavenging, it is observed that the practise has neither been wiped out nor have the manual scavengers been identified.
"This shows the lack of will of the states to address the issue. 2013 act provides that the local bodies should conduct a survey of the dry latrines and within nine months should replace them with sanitary latrines," he said.
