HYDERABAD: Manual scavengers, and organisations working for their welfare voiced the injustice that is being meted out to them by the government.
At a public meeting on ‘Demanding Justice for Sanitary Workers and Manual Scavengers’, organised by Basti Vikas Manch (BVM) here on Tuesday, families of the workers who lost lives while cleaning the drains, spoke about the loss they experienced.
Mother of two girl children, Jyotsna, said that her husband lost life when he got into a 32-feet deep man hole. “Unable to bear the stench, he collapsed and lost his life. Two other workers who went to rescue him also breathed their last later,” said Jyotsna. People who are involved in the work said in choruns that they are paid meagre salaries and often sent to work in dangerous conditions.
At a time when efforts are being made to reach Mars planet, why should people be employed to clean drainages, questioned organisations working for the cause of manual scavengers. Speaking at the meeting, Bezwada Wilson, founder and national convenor, Safai Karamchari Andolan, New Delhi, highlighted how government departments refuses to recognise deaths of people who lose life during scavenging, ploy behind employing people from certain castes to do the the inhuman work.