This refers to the report, “ >NHRC pulls up Tamil Nadu on manual scavenging ” (some editions, Nov.19), based on evidence supplied by The Hindu in Chennai. The employment of manual scavengers is inhuman and a shame on the civilised world.
Despite several stringent court orders and legislative measures, civic bodies continue to flout them with impunity. This is the age of high technology, and devising hi-tech systems to clean manholes should not be impossible. How long will the government exploit a community that has been oppressed and suppressed all these years? How is Narendra Modi’s ‘Swachh Bharat’ to be implemented? Surely, not by continuing to exploit the underprivileged!
S. Samuel,
Chennai
While on the subject of manual scavenging, I recall the report, “Armed with whistles, children to deter open defecation,” (Nov. 2), where a social experiment in villages near Indore involves giving whistles to children which they will sound whenever they spot someone defecating in the open. I would also like to highlight a recent television spot aimed at deterring littering and urination in public places. I personally feel that these initiatives are rather humiliating and demeaning. Obviously they were conceived with good intentions, but the psychological effects are agonizingly insulting. Heckling someone who litters is fine; bodily functions are natural and physiological actions; they are private acts.
Preventing open defecation and urination requires providing enough toilets — at least on a 1:2 ratio — and motivational methods to convince people to change their habits. How many of our so-called intellectuals/educated/literate/elite class have not eased themselves by the roadside while on a picnic, during a drive or while trekking? Everyone cannot be a VVIP to have mobile facilities with them.
C. Ravi,
Visakhapatnam
