Manual scavenging: Gujarat HC seeks 'blueprint' from state to end this 'disease'

Ahmedabad: Expressing "disappointment" over repeated incidents of labourers engaged in manual scavenging getting killed, the Gujarat High Court has sought a comprehensive "blueprint" from the state government to eradicate the practice for good.

Hearing a public interest litigation (PIL), the division bench of chief justice Justice Sunita Agarwal and justice D N Ray orally directed the principal secretary, state government to come up with a concrete action plan outlining steps to end the practice of manual scavenging across the state.

"We want the government to come up with a concrete plan...like a blueprint on how are you going to eradicate this...," Chief Justice Agarwal said during a brief hearing on Monday while issuing direction to bring the matter to the notice of advocate general.

"This is a kind of disease which we have to eradicate. Otherwise, we will keep chasing one incident after another," she said. The bench granted four weeks to the government for filing its response.

Earlier in April, in an affidavit Principal Secretary, Urban Development and Urban Housing Department had stated that all six regional commissioners of municipalities and 17 municipal corporations held a meeting for "ensuring strict implementation of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 by all municipalities to eradicate the practice of manual scavenging across the state."

Advocate Subramaniam Iyer for the petitioner, Manav Garima, an NGO, highlighted recent cases including that of Junagadh where two workers were killed while cleaning a septic tank in Ranpur village of Bhesan taluka in April. They were found unconscious while cleaning a 15-foot septic tank.

Similarly in March, a sanitary worker was killed while cleaning a septic tank near Nayandeep Society, Behind Chief Justice’s Bungalow, Judges Bungalow Road, Bodakdev in Ahmedabad. The victim was working for a firm, Anjali Valmiki Foundation, which was hired by Ahmedabad municipal corporation.

The high court had taken note of the case and stated in its April order, stating "No positive action seems to have been taken by any of the competent authority to curb such incidents of death of manual scavengers engaged by the contractors hired by the local bodies."