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Plea to lift ban on recruitment of safai karmacharis

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The National Commission for Safai Karmachari has asked the Centre to lift the blanket ban on the recruitment of safai karmacharis (manual scavengers). It has also wanted the Government to start a national campaign for eradication of manual scavenging.

The Commission has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi and the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to declare October 2 (Gandhi Jayanti) as Safai Karmachari Divas also. Talking to reporters here on Thursday, Commission chairperson Santosh Chowdhary said this section of society was not only far below others in all respects but even among the poorest of the poor. It ranks almost the lowest in income, education, health, sanitation and all other parameters of Human Development Indices, she said.

Contract system

Ms. Chowdhary said the Commission, which has completed one year of its existence, has also recommended to the Centre to abolish the contract system in the recruitment of safai karmacharis and get the latest data available on these through a fresh survey as the last study was conducted by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) in 1989 and the national Census in 1991.

According to the chairperson, one of the major achievements of the Commission was to get the safai karmacharis included in the schedule of the Minimum Wages Act and the Payment of Wages Act 1936 amended to cover this class of workers also.

This not only re-enforces the right of the worker to receive the minimum wages but will also help him get minimum wages even under the contract system until the system is eliminated, she added. This issue had been taken up in February 2005 with the Union Labour Ministry following which the amendment was taken up.

The UPA Government is committed to eradicate manual scavenging by 2007 and is working on a national action plan to achieve this with the Commission overseeing the efforts being made by various agencies in this respect.

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