Govt hires Manual scavengers! One hundred and fifty contract workers are engaged in Manual Scavenging by the South Western Railways in Bangalore City Junction. The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, clearly prohibits employment of manual scavengers in any manner. But the railway which is brought under the purview of the latest Act clearly violates the law. About 150 workers are contracted by the South Western Railways to do the housekeeping work in the Bangalore City Junction through Global Agency, a private company. These workers work in three shifts and do various cleaning work which includes cleaning the human defecation on the tracks which constitutes manual scavenging under Sec 2 (1) (g) of the Act. The law prescribes imprisonment up to one year with fine amounting to Rs.50, 000 for violation of the provisions of this Act. Deepa, a Core committee member of Forum Against Manual Scavenging (FAMS) said, “It took almost 46 years for our law makers to bring a law to prohibit the in-human practice of manual scavenging. The gross violation of such socially sensitive law by its own agencies shows government’s lethargic approach towards such issues.” Arun, a Supervisor with Global Agency to which the work is contracted said, “The cleaning work is carried out 24 hours 7 days a week in three shifts” he added, “We clean all the places in the station including the tracks, we clean the defecations on the track manually” When asked about the protective gears they use while cleaning the tracks, Arun, said, “We are provided with some gears like gloves and shoes. But we do not prefer them, we use them only during inspection,” this diminishes the chances for Railways to get protection under Sec 2 (1) (g) (b) which states that scavenging with protective gears will not constitute Manual Scavenging. While answering for the question why Railways outsources such works he said, “Years before Railways had permanent housekeeping workers, but when the issues like cleaning the defecations on tracks and toilets came up they assigned them to other departments and started to engage contract workers for this kind of works” Devi, a contract worker involved in manual scavenging in City Junction said, “We don’t know that we have to clean shit on tracks when they hired us” she further said, “Initially they gave us works like cleaning the office rooms and platforms and later they made us to clean the tracks which we could not refuse” She said, “Yes, it is very difficult to clean the tracks, but we have no other go the pay is better than other jobs, we feel embarrassed when people show faces seeing us cleaning the shit, so we avoid doing it when the platform is crowded” when asked how they feel while doing this work. “The stipulated wages for these workers is Rs.320 per day, but the contractor pays them around Rs.180 to Rs.200”, said Manoj, a member of FAMS. Biswas, Public Relation Officer, of the Bangalore City Junction said, “I cannot comment on this, the medical department is responsible for this. I am busy now, I will call you later” and disconnected the call. Mosas Y, Sate coordinator of Safai Karmachari Andoaln, a Delhi based organization which works for eradicating Manual Scavenging said, “We made enormous pressure on government through rallies, protests and filing public interest litigations to make the government to bring Railways under the purview of the Act. Even after this the Railways is still violating the law.” He added, “The Railways ensured us years back that all the toilets in the trains will be converted to bio-degradable toilets and some funds are allocated for this purpose, but it has done nothing so far.” When asked about the higher percentage of women in these works, Deepa, said, “A clear gender division can be witnessed in manual scavenging also, majority of these workers are women particularly dailt. Organizations prefer women workers for their cheap labor.”
Posted on: Wed, 09 Oct 2013 14:19:49 +0000