The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Dependants of scavengers to be rehabilitated

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Monday, Jul 07, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Dependants of scavengers to be rehabilitated

Staff Reporter

To be trained in garment technology and electrical maintenance
Rs.1 crore more allotted to the manual scavengers welfare board

CHENNAI: The government has identified 6,400 dependants of manual scavengers for training them in garment technology and electrical maintenance to help them find alternative employment, Adi Dravidar Welfare Minister A. Tamilarasi has said.

They have been identified from among the nearly 30,000 scavengers who have registered themselves with the Tamil Nadu Adi Dravidar Housing and Development Corporation.

She was chairing the second meeting of the manual scavengers welfare board at the Secretariat on Wednesday.

The government has allotted an additional Rs.1 crore to the board. The sum will be used for providing the children of manual scavengers with scholarships and to finance the other welfare programmes.

Board members told the Minister that municipalities and corporations in Erode and Madurai districts, where manual scavengers are still employed, refused to entertain any intervention from them, as the civic bodies were unaware of the board. The Minister said the department would resolve the issue by providing identity cards to the board members.

According to the government, 35,561 scavengers and their dependants were identified during 1993, and 30,198 of them had been rehabilitated; only 5,363 scavengers and their dependants need to be rehabilitated.

However, welfare board member P. Sampath demanded that the government conduct a fresh census to determine the number of manual scavengers and their dependants.

The first meeting of the board was held in October 2007.

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