Hundreds of safai karmacharis and their family members poured out their grievances to M. Shivanna, Chairperson of National Commission for Safai Karamcharis, when he visited Raichur on Thursday.
In a meeting held at the office of the Deputy Commissioner, Mr. Shivanna received a number of complaints and attempted to solve them on the spot by directly discussing the issue with the concerned officer. The grievances ranged from insulting the children of safai karmacharis in a school on the basis of caste and their family profession to the denial of loans by State-owned financial institutions for self-employment.
“I was initially denied admission to a private school under Right to Education Act. After the then Assistant Commissioner spoke to the school authorities, I was given admission. Now, the school authorities are demanding Rs. 10,000 as fees. The school authorities also insult me before other students by calling me by my parents’ profession,” a girl complained to the NCSK chairman. Additional Deputy Commissioner H.P. Nagaraj and Mr. Shivanna immediately talked to the school authorities and warned them of dire consequences if they continued to harass the girl.
They also warned that the authorities would be booked under Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
In another case, Bhaskar Babu, a safai karmachari leader, complained that the Ambedkar Development Corporation had denied loans to safai karmacharis for self-employment. S.L. Manjunath, district manager of the corporation denied the allegation by stating that 612 safai karmacharies were provided with loans in the last year.
However, they countered that the loans were given to some other people in the name of safai karmahcaris. NCSK chairperson asked the corporation to conduct an enquiry into the issue and submit a report within thirty days.
Mr. Shivanna said that there was no dearth of funds with the government for the development of safai karmacharis, however, the implementing agencies lacked will.
“There is a stringent law in place. There is no dearth of funds. Yet, the development of safai karmacharis and rehabilitation of manual scavengers is at a snail’s pace,” he said.
