By IANS
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Friday asked the central and state governments to implement the provisions of a law aimed at ending the profession of manual scavenging in the country and rehabilitate those engaged in the demeaning task.
A bench of justices H.K. Sema and L.S. Panta asked the governments to notify district magistrates and sub-divisional magistrates to implement within two months the provisions of the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993.
The law treats employment of people as manual scavengers and construction of dry latrines as criminal offence and has made it mandatory for the government to rehabilitate manual scavengers after weaning them away from the profession.
The law also binds governments to demolish dry latrines in the country.
The bench issued the directions while adjudicating a bunch of petitions by NGO Safai Karamchari Andolan (Sweeper’s Movement) and 13 other organisations and individuals urging abolition of manual scavenging and rehabilitation of over 676,000 people engaged in it.
The bench also assured the petitioners that it would take a hard look at the large-scale employment of scavengers by the Indian Railways to clear the railway tracks of human waste.
The bench made the promise after counsel for the petitioners Shomona Khanna pointed out that the Ministry of Railways was the worst violator of the act, as it engages labourers for manual scavenging on the railway tracks.
The petition sought a declaration that manual scavenging and servicing dry latrines violated the fundamental rights, as per Article 14 (equality before law), Article 17 (abolition of untouchability) and Article 23 (right against exploitation) of the Constitution.
Khanna told the court that as per official statistics of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, there were still as many as 676,000 manual scavengers spread over 21 states and union territories of the country, though the law to abolish manual scavenging had been passed in 1993.
Khanna told the court that states like Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan were yet to adopt the law, while some like Kerala, Nagaland and Puducherry asserted that there was no need to adopt it despite figures showing that manual scavenging existed there.