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New Delhi: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has taken suo motu cognizance of a media report about the plight of manual scavengers including 30 women in Meerut district of Uttar Pradesh and over all 12,737 identified in 13 states and Union Territories till January, 2017.
Considering it as the worst example of violation of right to life, dignity, equality and health care, the Commission has issued notices, returnable within six weeks, to the Secretary, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India, New Delhi, and the Chief Secretary, Government of Uttar Pradesh, calling for a detailed report in the matter along with the steps taken/proposed to be taken to deal with the situation along with measure for the relief and rehabilitation of the victims, according to an NHRC release.
The Commission has observed that in a civilized society, where the government has passed laws like Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, Untouchability Offence Act and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Caste (PoA) Act, the women of a vulnerable Dalit community are still not able to get rid of the slur of carrying human excreta on their heads. The district Meerut is almost a part of the National Capital Region. If this is the picture of an area not very far from the national capital, one can imagine the scenario in the other parts of the country, the NHRC observed, according to the release.
Narrating the plight of the 30 women manual scavengers at Radhna Inayatpur village of Mawana in the district, of whom many have grown old doing this work, the media report carried on June 15, 2017, says that they are paid as little as between Rs 10 and Rs 50 every month, per household to clean the dry latrines and sometimes, as a bonus, they are given stale leftover food and worn-out clothes.
Due to exposure to filth, most of them have multiple health issues such as vomiting, constant headache, skin and respiratory diseases, trachoma, anaemia, carbon monoxide poisoning and diarrhoea, Hepatitis and Helicobacter. To avoid the stench, they often smoke beedis. One of the women has contracted Tuberculosis forcing her to stop working as a manual scavenger. The worst happens during rainy season, when the excreta slip from the basket on their hair and shoulders, the NHRC release said.