CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu has finally agreed to more than triple the compensation for the kin of manual scavengers, who died on private premises, from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 10 lakh, after its reluctance to follow a three-year-old order invoked the Supreme Court’s glare.
The Supreme Court had in 2014 directed the State government to identify safai karamcharis, who died while cleaning manholes and sewer lines since 1993, and award a compensation of `10 lakh to their dependants.
However, in cases of deaths on private premises, where owners did not have the paying capacity, the Tamil Nadu Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department sanctioned only `3 lakh as ex-gratia to the victims’ kin. “We had an in principle objection that the State cannot be held responsible for deaths in private premises,” Municipal Administration Secretary K Phanindra Reddy told Express.
However, activists, including recent Magsaysay Award winner Bezwada Wilson, the national convener of Safai Karmachari Andolan, opposed the stand arguing that the Supreme Court judgment had fixed the responsibility on government authorities.
When questioned about the delay, Reddy said Tamil Nadu was the only State in the country that had implemented the law to such an extent, without depending on Central funds. Most States after accepting liability sought help from the Centre to pay the compensation. The disagreement on deaths at private premises was a question of policy, explained the official. “Will you hold the State responsible for all road accidents and seek compensation?”
There, however, is a major difference, Bezwada Wilson explained. Unlike a road accident, “We know that somebody entering sewer lines or septic tanks will die. That they escape death is the miraculous part.” Providing sanitation was the responsibility of government and it has to take it up when someone dies in that process,” he added.
As the State with the maximum number of statutory towns in the country, Tamil Nadu should come up with a comprehensive plan to stop these deaths by introducing underground drainage lines or machines to clean septic tanks automatically. “Without focussing on the existing problem and adding more toilets under the Swachh Bharat scheme, the government is introducing a new form of scavenging in villages” Wilson said.