The Tamil Nadu Adi Dravidar Housing and Development Corporation Limited (Tahdco) has stopped providing loans to scavengers across the State due to poor recovery, said officials in their reply to the National Safai Karamchari Finance and Development Corporation (NSKFDC).
The issued was raised recently during a meeting by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment where it was pointed out that Tamil Nadu has not drawn any funds from NSKFDC since 2004-05, which is aimed at providing "financial assistance to the Safai Karamcharis, scavengers and their dependants for any viable income generating schemes including sanitation related activities and for education in India and abroad."
It was further added that the State must provide a fresh demand of funds against live schemes keeping in view the requirement of its beneficiaries. However, in their reply, officials from Tahdco pointed out that they had received term loan assistance from NSKFDC until 2004-05 to a tune of ₹12.23 crore, which was provided to 9,451 beneficiaries, including municipal and sanitary workers across the State. But despite periodic demands and notices, the recovery from the beneficiaries has not been forthcoming due to which they stopped providing loans and seeking funds from the Corporation.
“We had incurred significant loss due to poor recovery from the beneficiaries, so we have not sought for any more funds from NSKFDC. But we instead provide monetary assistance for skill based training to workers to help them set up alternate employment,” said an official from Tahdco.
Aid for workers
According to officials from Tahdco, so far 4,448 workers across the State were provided monetary assistance, including those who became disabled during work and a sum of ₹1 lakh was provided to families of 12 workers died due to accidents. A total sum of ₹1.21 crore has been reportedly spent for their welfare.
Activists, however, point out that merely providing one-time financial assistance to these workers without any capacity building training is inadequate as many of them tend to return to manual scavenging after all the money is exhausted.
“Recovery of loans from workers has been an issue in several States in the past, because of no follow up or registration. The idea of providing loans is to help them set up alternative businesses, but they must be provided proper training so that they too can lead a dignified life,” said A. Narayanan, director, CHANGEIndia.
