An incident of manual scavenging in the city has come to light after a sewerman was allegedly forced to clean a clogged manhole without any safety gear.
Senior officials of the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) are now in the dock for allegedly forcing manual scavenging at a manhole near the Mahatma Gandhi Statue on Thursday, which is only a stone’s throw away from Cubbon Park police station. The issue came to light after a social worker noticed the worker in the manhole — clearing the filth with bare hands— and objected to it. When the social worker, identified as Narasimhamurthy, tried to question the contractor, he escaped. Even the labourers were tight-lipped about the contractor’s identity, Mr. Narasimhamurthy told The Hindu .
According to him, filing a complaint at Cubbon Park police station was also a tough task. “I had to explain the seriousness of the issue and convince the policemen of filing a case. It took me over three hours to get an FIR registered,” he said. He has accused the contractor and the BWSSB officials of not only forcing the worker to clean the manhole manually, but also violating a Supreme Court ruling abolishing manual scavenging.
The police have taken up a case against the officials under various sections of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Act, 2013. “We have asked for an explanation from the BWSSB . Based on this, necessary action will be initiated,” a senior police officer said.
Meanwhile, Chairman, Karnataka Safai Karmachari Commission, Narayan, condemned the incident saying that BWSSB was resorting to manual scavenging blatantly despite having the required machineries. “I will take up this issue with the BWSSB ,” he said.
