Safai Karamchari Andolan & Ors. Versus Union of India & Ors. - Manual Scavenging

Night soil or Night Man is a euphemism for human faeces collected at night from cesspools, privies, etc. and sometimes used as a fertilizer

Recently, the Apex Court passed an important judgment relating to manual scavenging. The Court passed various and discussed various aspects relating to this evil practice.

Statistics relating to Manual Scavenging

1. According to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, there are 7,70,338 scavengers and their dependents in India.

2. The sub-Committee of the Task Force constituted by the Planning Commission in 1989 estimated that there were 72.05 lakhs dry latrines in the country. The numbers have only increased in the recent years.

3. The Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993- It punishes the employment of scavengers or the construction of dry (non-flush) latrines with imprisonment for up to one year and/or a fine of Rs 2,000. The 1993 law saw no conviction in its 20-year history despite the widespread prevalence of the practice.

4. National Commission for Safai Karamcharis (NCSK) exists for the upliftment of safai karamcharis, evaluation of the implementation of measures taken for the welfare of safai karamcharis, making of suitable recommendations to the Central Government in this regard, and to investigate grievances relating to implementation of schemes, laws etc. for the purpose.

5. The biggest culprit in this regard is the Indian Railways which has toilets dropping all the excreta from trains on the tracks and they employ scavengers to clean it manually.

6. There are various provisions in the Constitution that assure dignity of an individual such as article 46, article 14, article 15 etc.

Relief Sought for

1. To ensure complete eradication of Dry Latrines.

2. To declare continuance of the practice of manual scavenging and the operation of Dry Latrines violative of Articles 14, 17, 21 and 23 of the Constitution and the 1993 Act.

3. To direct the government to issue directives to Panchayats and Municipal Corporations to strictly implement the provisions of the act and to formulate detailed time-bound plans in this regard.

Discussion by the Court

The court cited article 17 that abolished untouchability in our country. Now, one of the ways of implementing article 17 has been through the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955. Section 7A of this act states that:

“Section 7A. (1) - Whoever compels any person on the ground of “untouchability”, to do any scavenging or sweeping or to remove any carcass or to flay any animal or to remove the umbilical cord or to do any other job of a similar nature, shall be deemed to have enforced a disability arising out of “untouchability”.”

The court said that despite such provisions, the menace of manual scavenging is not on a decline. The court also cited various international conventions that prohibit manual scavenging such as Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Convention on Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) and the Convention for Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

Since 2003, the writ petition filed in the present case was treated as a continuing mandamus. Various other orders were passed by the court. The governments also filed affidavits from time to time as per the directions of the court.

Recently, a new Act in this regard has been brought for abolition of this evil and for the welfare of manual scavengers. It is called “The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013”. The Act got the assent of the President on 18.09.2013. The enactment of the aforesaid Act, in no way, neither dilutes the constitutional mandate of Article 17 nor does it condone the inaction on the part of Union and State Governments under the 1993 Act. What the 2013 Act does in addition is to expressly acknowledge Article 17 and Article 21 rights of the persons engaged in sewage cleaning and cleaning tanks as well persons cleaning human excreta on railway tracks.

There are many other salient features of this act which I will discuss in my subsequent posts.

Court’s Directions

1. Children of the manual scavengers shall be entitled to scholarship as per the relevant scheme of the Central Government or the State Government and one-time cash assistance to the scavengers.

2. Housing facilities and adequate financial help in this regard shall be provided to the manual scavengers.

3. At least one member of their family, shall be given, subject to eligibility and willingness, training in livelihood skill and shall be paid a monthly stipend during such period and at least one adult member of their family, shall be given, subject to eligibility and willingness, subsidy and concessional loan for taking up an alternative occupation on sustainable basis.

4. Railways – should take time bound strategy to end manual scavenging on the tracks.

5. Sewer deaths – entering sewer lines without safety gears should be made a crime even in emergency situations. Also, identify the families of all persons who have died in sewerage work (manholes, septic tanks) since 1993 and award compensation of Rs.10 lakhs for each such death to the family members depending on them.

Opinion

I personally feel that this is more of a societal issue than a legal one. The thinking of people must change. For e.g. it is very common to see people using latrines in train while the train is halting at a station. People know that there excreta will get dumped below them and after sometime, some other human being will come and clean their excreta. Despite knowing and realizing this, people do not feel ashamed for this (excluding emergency situations).

The new 2013 act is a very welcome step in this regard. Let us hope that it is followed to letter and spirit.