NHRC calls for fixing responsibility in cases of death of workers during hazardous cleaning
NEW DELHI: The National Human Rights Commission on Wednesday called for fixing responsibility in cases of death of workers during manual scavenging, including hazardous cleaning. The human rights panel issued an advisory to the Centre and the states that sanitary workers should be treated as “frontline health workers” for all purposes.
The NHRC made several recommendations to provide security cover and ensure protection of human rights of persons engaged in such hazardous work and called for “fixing responsibility and accountability of local authority and contractor/employer, jointly and severally in case of any death that occur due to manual scavenging including hazardous cleaning”.
In a letter through its Secretary General Bimbadhar Pradhan to the secretaries of Union ministries and departments concerned, and the chief secretaries of states and administrators of Union Territories, the commission asked for the implementation of its recommendations in the advisory and sought an action-taken report within three months.