The Hindu : National : Last chance to end manual scavenging: Supreme Court

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 04, 2005

National

National

Last chance to end manual scavenging: Supreme Court

Legal Correspondent

There is a lack of will to implement the Act

NEW DELHI: Expressing concern at the prevalence of manual scavenging across the country, the Supreme Court has asked the Centre and the States to ensure eradication of the pernicious and obnoxious practice within six months.

Passing orders on a petition from the Safai Karmachari Andolan and others, a Bench consisting of Justice S.N. Variava and Justice H.K. Sema said the practice still continued despite a 1993 law banning it.

Giving a last opportunity, the Bench told the States "if manual scavenging is still being resorted to, the Department or the Corporation should indicate with details what scheme it has for eliminating it and for rehabilitating the persons concerned and within what timeframe."

`Check personally'

The Centre and each State "shall ask persons at the higher level in each of their departments and Corporations to personally check and file affidavits in this court whether or not manual scavenging is still being resorted to." The "person who files the affidavit must be one who is responsible for taking a decisionin the matter. The affidavit [is] to be filed on personal information as we propose to hold the person responsible if it is found that the affidavit does not contain the truth."

Petitioner's counsel S. Muralidhar said though the Government had spent Rs. 600 crores on implementation of the law, nearly 7.87 lakh persons were still engaged as scavengers.The emphasis would have to be on complete eradication of this practice and simultaneous rehabilitation of all scavengers.

On the Centre's stand that the law could not be properly enforced for lack of resources, the Bench said the government's failure in implementation was a feature common to several enactments. The Bench said: "Clearly there was a lack of will to implement the Act."

It also disapproved of the Railways not indicating any timeframe to fit all coaches with water seal latrines in place of the open discharge system, which necessitated cleaning of the track byscavengers.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National