National Human Rights Commission today took a note of reports of over 200 families being involved in manual scavenging in Badaun district of Uttar Pradesh and issued notices to the district authorities seeking a report on the matter.
According to an NHRC statement released today, the Commission has issued a notice to the District Magistrate, Badaun, Uttar Pradesh calling for a report in the matter within two weeks.
The notice was issued after the Commission took suo motu cognisance of a media report that about 200 families were engaged in the practise of cleaning dry toilets in different villages of Badaun district of Uttar Pradesh.
This, despite the fact that in 2011, the then District Magistrate had won Prime Minister's Award for Excellence in Public Administration for his 'Dalia Jalao' campaign for eliminating manual scavenging and the practise of dry or insanitary latrines.
Reportedly, the villages in the District were short of wet toilets forcing people to defecate in the open. Women were working as manual scavengers in Ramzanpur and adjoining Mirzapur Midhauli in the district.
Giving details of the problems being faced by some women manual scavengers, it was reported that most of such women were from the Dalit community and being widows had no alternative source of income, the statement said.
The Commission has observed that the contents of the press report, if true, raise a serious issue of violation of human rights of the Dalits.
