VILLUPURAM: The Social Awareness Society for Youth (SASY), a rights-based organisation, has urged the Tamil Nadu government to eradicate manual sanitation work and provide comprehensive rehabilitation for affected families under the SC/ST Sub-Plan.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the organisation said the plight of sanitary workers across the state remains disheartening, as they are compelled to take up hazardous tasks such as handling garbage, desludging septic tanks, clearing drains and manholes, and removing faecal waste, often without proper wages, safety equipment, or legal protection.
SASY demanded that workers be provided welfare measures under the SC/ST Sub-Plan as a constitutional right and not be forced to accept lower wages from private contractors.
The statement recalled, “In 2023, conservancy workers from Erode, Coimbatore and Tiruppur districts staged a sit-in protest demanding the implementation of a directive from the district administrations to reinstate previously removed sanitary workers and pay them a daily wage of `593. But it was not provided, and the struggle continues even now with workers in Chennai protesting for permanency and proper wages.”
It further cited a 2022 study by the organisation, which found that implementation of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Rehabilitation Act, 2013 remains poor across Tamil Nadu. Manhole deaths continue unabated, it said, with 308 recorded across India between 2018 and 2022 — Tamil Nadu registering the highest, at 52.
Speaking to the TNIE, SASY executive director V Rameshnathan said, “Workers face suffocation, toxic gas exposure, and fatal accidents due to lack of safety norms. In addition, open defecation sites, temporary toilets at political rallies, festivals and bus stands still rely on manual waste disposal by Dalit workers. We demand this be stopped at once, with the state government providing them alternative job opportunities in the government sector under the sub-plan funds.”
He added that instead of returning unused funds, the SC/ST Welfare Department must focus on utilising them to rehabilitate these workers. “Comprehensive rehabilitation packages, including alternative livelihoods, housing, education support, agricultural land and healthcare, funded through the SC/ST Sub-Plan, is the need of the hour. We demand the state government, which otherwise projects itself as a social justice champion, implement these benefits as a constitutional right for workers,” he said.
Rameshnathan also stressed that criminal liability must be imposed under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act on officials and contractors responsible for deaths during sewage or septic tank cleaning.