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Ground Report | New Delhi: Dalit Man forced in Gujarat; A Dalit man was forced down a sewer in Sector 3B in Gandhinagar to clear a clogged sewer pipe. Images that went viral on social media show a shirtless worker without safety equipment being lowered into the sewer by a rope.
Dalit Man forced in Gujarat
The man identified as Amar Singh Vasava was forced to clear a clogged drain at Navratri Chowk in Sector 3B on Thursday, also without any safety equipment!
Following this, the police filed an FIR at Gandhinagar Sector 7 Police Station against a supervisor named Parthiv Lathia, who works for Khilari Infra Private Limited, a Navi-Mumbai-based company that has a six-month contract for the repair. and drain maintenance. In the area. Lathia was booked under the sections of the Atrocities Prevention of Castes and Tribes Programmed Act (SC / ST), the Act Prohibiting Employment as Manual Garbage and Rehabilitation, and IPC 336 for a negligent act that endangers life human.
ALSO READ: 58,000 manual scavengers in India, 97% Dalit
The Indian Express quoted an excerpt from the complaint: “Lathia had asked Vasava, a native of Bharuch, to enter the drain without any safety equipment. However, according to the conditions of the offer received by Lathia's agency, no worker can be forced to enter the drain ”.
Lathia has been booked under Section 336 (an act that endangers the life or personal safety of others) of the Indian Penal Code, the Sections of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Dumpsters Act, and Rehabilitation of 2013, and the Scheduled Caste and Tribe (Atrocity Prevention) Act.
The police will also investigate the matter if the supervisor or his company has been doing the same with other workers.
ALSO READ: Safai Karamcharis: Unsung heroes of Indian sanitation
Dalits have faced exclusion and discrimination for centuries, often forced to perform degrading and dehumanizing jobs such as manual garbage collection. This practice is common even today, despite the fact that there is legislation to protect the rights of people from Registered Castes and Tribes, and there is even a law that prohibits people from being employed as manual collectors - Prohibition of Employment as Manual Collectors and their Rehabilitation Act.
58,000 manual scavengers in India, 97% Dalit
In December 2021, the government told Parliament that there are 58,098 manual scavengers in the country and 42,594 of them belong to the Scheduled Castes. RJD MP Manoj Jha had asked the ministry what is the caste-based separate number of persons involved in manual scavenging, what steps have been taken to include them in the economic system and completely eliminate the practice.
According to data from the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, the government has caste-related data of 43,797 identified manual scavengers, and more than 42,500 of them belong to the Scheduled Castes.
Out of 58,098 persons who have been identified as manual scavengers, only 43,797 persons have caste data available. It was found that out of these 42,594 i.e. more than 97 percent manual scavengers belong to Scheduled Castes. Apart from this, 421 are from Scheduled Tribes, 431 from Other Backward Classes (OBC), and 351 from other classes.
The government also told in its reply that efforts are being made to get the people engaged in this work to be engaged in other works. For this, one-time cash assistance of Rs.40,000 is given to an identified manual scavenger in a family. So far this cash amount has been given to all 58,098 persons under this scheme.
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