BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday took up suo moto cognisance of the ‘Big Picture’ story titled ‘Manual Scavenging Continues Despite Ban’ with a tag line ‘It is a shame that even today, humans are called to clean septic tanks across the state’ published by The New Indian Express on December 25.
Observing that the incidents of manual scavenging are very disturbing and certainly shock one’s conscience, the division bench of Chief Justice Prasanna B Varale and Justice Krishna S Dixit quoted a couplet of poet Sahir Ludhianvi that 'even soil has some value but human beings are worth nothing...'
"Is it not a shame? Is this what we all are here for... Merely because somebody is facing financial difficulty is he to lead a life as bad as an animal?" the court observed.
The court observed that a person just because he was born in a particular community is forced to carry out such dirty work.
The court also observed that the freedom fighters and social reformers have dreamed of a society where everyone is equal but things like this continue to happen.
"Why are we making our brothers do these things (manual scavenging) when there are technical advancements to clean the pits but there was no change in the mindset?"
"We raised to the Moon two months back which is very proud but we are not treating our brothers as human beings," the court observed while quoting the couplets of Sant Tukaram.
Meanwhile, the court asked the government advocate to look into the issue.
The court appointed advocate Sridhar Prabhu as amicus curiae to assist the court and directed him to file a public interest litigation with the registry which in turn has to place the matter before the court for hearing on January 8.
TNIE publishes stories on similar burning issues from Karnataka every Monday. One such issue, manual scavenging, was taken up after the incident of students forced to clean a septic tank in Malur of Kolar district came to light.
The story upheld statistics revealing the number of cases filed, FIRs registered, cases wherein trial is going on, number of cases in which accused are convicted and cases closed from 2019-20 to 2023 for the practice of manual scavenging across the state, despite the enactment of Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013.
Appanna (40), a Bengaluru resident who was quoted in the story was mentioned in the court and that the fact that she was asked to clean pits despite a ban was very disturbing.
In the order, the court also quoted Bezwada Wilson, a Ramon Magsaysay awardee.
"The Act came into effect in 2013 and the SC order prohibiting manual scavenging came in 2014. No human should clean human excreta. But the government is not serious. It has done no campaigns. Today a person residing in the smallest villages in Karnataka is aware of Swacch Bharat Abhiyan, but people still say they know nothing of the manual scavenging Act. What happened in Kolar is a crime. The government should stop the caste drama. The Constitution also says there should be no discrimination. Malur was only a representation of what was happening on the ground. In 2023 alone, there have been 93 deaths of manual scavengers across India," Wilson had said.