The Madras High Court on Monday directed the Central and State governments and other agencies concerned to file an affidavit by four weeks to a writ petition seeking the implementation of all the provisions of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Act in Tamil Nadu.
Panel
The petitioner also said district-level vigilance committees and State-level monitoring panel should be constituted. The committees should function effectively.
In the petition, CHANGEindia, a social welfare organisation, represented by its director A. Narayanan of Virugambakkam here, said the Act received the President’s assent in September 2013 and was gazetted on October 2. It took effect on December 6 the same year.
The new law banned the employment of persons for manual scavenging, including that of hazardous cleaning of sewers, drainage and septic tanks. Hereafter, the work could be done only using mechanical devices without compromising the health and dignity of workers. A provision had been made for monetary assistance and rehabilitation of the erstwhile manual scavengers and their dependants.
Despite this, manual scavenging and entry of workers into sewage manholes and septic tanks continued unabated in Chennai and other cities of Tamil Nadu.
Compensation
This had resulted in several deaths of workers. The authorities had not taken steps to implement the Act. Mr. Narayanan said identification of families of all persons who died while doing manual scavenging in sewerage since 1993 should be completed. Each family should be awarded Rs.10 lakh as compensation.