CHENNAI: “All faces in front of me reflect anguish,” goes the opening line of the play Manjal organised by the Jai Bhim Mandram at Valluvar Kottam, as part of the protest against sewer deaths by Safai Karmachari Andolan.
The lines of the play, like its characters, were rooted in people who lost their loved ones to manual scavenging.On Wednesday, at the protest, family members of around a dozen individuals across the State who had lost their lives to manual scavenging, shared their grief.
“My husband took up manual scavenging because he was not able to find any other work. I want to tell you all from my experience that it doesn’t matter if you don’t find work, please don’t get into the sewers,” said Amutha from Thiruvallur, who lost her husband Murugesan, to manual scavenging.
Safai Karmachari Andolan put forth a series of demands that included an apology from the government for the manual scavenging deaths so far, strict implementation of the 2014 Supreme Court order on abolition of manual scavenging and a permanent government job for a family member of the victim.
The organisation also demanded that all conservancy-related works only be taken up by the government and not handed over to private agencies through contracts and that the compensation for sewer deaths from 1993 be increased to `25 lakh.
Speaking at the protest, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi founder Thol Thirumavalavan said, “Even by the government’s own records, around three lakh people clean up human waste from the tracks. Does the government think about their families?” Bezwada Wilson, one of the founders and national convener of the Safai Karmachari Andolan and retired High Court Judge Prabha Sridevan were also present.
Left in the lurch
On August 20, 32-year-old Mariyo V told his mother Bernard Mary that he had been called to weld the leakage in a pumping line in a septic tank at the Allikulam pumping station. That was the last when Mary saw of him.
According to the contents of the FIR filed at that time, Mariyo was found dead while he was welding the leak. “The rope that was tied to his hip had snapped and he fell into the tank,” said the FIR. A case was registered under Section 174 of CrPC (unnatural or suspicious death).
He was said to be employed on a contract basis with the Metro Water and sewage board.Mary Bernard does not have a home. She stays on the streets, at KM Gardens in Purasaiwalkam.“My daughter Shamili stays with my sister. She has finished her BA now. She wants to do a computer course after this,” said Mary. The compensation that she received for her son’s death will be spent on her daughter and to settle loans, she said. “I sometimes go without money to even have a cup of tea. When Mario was alive, he made sure I always ate” Mary said.