Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 150
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 151
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Manual scavenging killed 19 people in Mumbai in five years, BMC records zero deaths - Aarefa Johari

Manual scavenging killed 19 people in Mumbai in five years, BMC records zero deaths - Aarefa Johari

Share this article Share this article
published Published on Jan 8, 2023   modified Modified on Jan 9, 2023

- Scroll.in

India prohibited manual scavenging in 1993. But it took another 20 years to expand its legal definition to include the manual cleaning of drains, sewers and septic tanks. Mumbai, with the richest municipal corporation in India, was among the worst offenders when it came to the implementation of the 2013 law.

Records maintained by the Safai Karamchari Andolan, a national organisation working for the rights of sanitation workers, show 19 people died in Mumbai in the past five years while cleaning septic tanks and sewers. Despite this, Mumbai’s municipal corporation has not officially recorded manual scavenger deaths. As far as the corporation is concerned, the city has seen no manual scavenger deaths at all in the past five years. The tally of such deaths has been zero since 2017, it said in response to a Right to Information request by Scroll.in.

From 2017 up to November 2022, the Safai Karamchari Andolan has recorded 70 deaths of manual scavengers across rural and urban Maharashtra. Of these, 19 deaths – more than a quarter of the total – are from Mumbai city alone. Six deaths took place in 2017, four in 2018, six in 2019 and three more in March 2022. The 2013 law - Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act - makes a local government responsible for maintaining records of all manual scavengers it comes across, irrespective of who employs them. Local bodies are also responsible for financially rehabilitating them and the families of those who die doing such work. The law also makes it a punishable offence to make a person enter sewers and septic tanks to clean them manually. 

In response to Scroll.in’s Right to Information request the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation said it had a set of 100 machines for cleaning sewers and septic tanks, as the 2013 Act mandates. This includes 12 suction machines, which can unclog drains by sucking excess water and blockages; 22 high-capacity suction-cum-jetting machines with recyclers, which can additionally spray water with extreme force; 24 compact pipe sewer cleaning machines; eight grab machines for desilting manholes; 11 gulley emptiers, 10 mud sucking machines and four pairs of power buckets. However, this is meant to serve a city with a population of 2 crore spread over 603 square kilometers. Sanitation workers therefore say they rarely get to use them, and are forced to manually clean tanks and sewers.        

Please click here to read the original article    


aarefa Johari, Scroll.in, https://scroll.in/article/1041036/manual-scavenging-killed-19-people-in-mumbai-in-past-five-years-but-bmc-records-show-zero-deaths


Related Articles

 

Write Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Video Archives

Archives

share on Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Feedback
Read Later

Contact Form

Please enter security code
      Close