Families of manual scavengers, who died while handling “untreated human waste”, have now been promised Rs. 10 lakh compensation immediately as per the 2014 Supreme Court directive. It was also decided to provide employment to one member of the family.
After holding a meeting of officials and stakeholders at the Vidhana Soudha on Wednesday, Minister for Social Welfare H. Anjaneya said that officials have been directed to pay compensation “immediately” to the families who have been waiting for a long time. “If there is a technical problem in releasing the compensation, respective corporations and municipalities will be asked to release money immediately and claim reimbursement from the government later,” he said.
He said over 60 manual scavengers have died in the last 10 years while clearing manholes, and officials have been directed to collect information on their dependants to appoint them as pourakarmikas on compassionate grounds.
At the same time, it has also been decided to offer medical treatment at high-tech hospitals for manual scavengers who fall critically ill while on the job.
When asked if this implies that manual scavenging will continue, Mr. Anjaneya admitted that the practice of using the services of manual scavengers “whenever machines to clear manholes fail”, still continues. Regardless of the danger involved, this community comes forward to handle the job, even without safety devises. “I have not heard of any manual scavenger retiring. Their lives end miserably with diseases,” he said.
Seeking to end years of exploitation by contractors, the State government has decided to regularise services of an estimated 50,000 outsourced purakarmikas. “A transparent survey will be conducted to identify the genuine pourakarmikas, and if needed, norms will be amended to regularise their services,” he said.
More than estimated
Though official estimates say there are 302 manual scavengers in urban areas and 474 in rural parts, according to Mr. Anjaneya’s own admission, the real number could be over 5,000 across the State. Dubbing the survey conducted to identify manual scavengers as an “eyewash”, the Minister said, “The tradition of carrying human excreta on the head by one community is still in practice in some of parts of Karnataka, and they don’t have any kind of security. Government wants to put an end to this inhuman practice.”
