CM to head manual scavenging monitoring panel

Besides welcoming it, activists are sceptical about the functioning of the Committee since the awareness quotient is nill among the cops while dealing with deaths relating to manual scavenging. A functional district level vigilance committees will help abolish the trade, and rehabilitate those involved in manual scavenging.

The Committee is headed by the CM with Ministers of Municipal Administration & Rural Development, Revenue, and Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare, representatives from National Commission for Scheduled Caste and National Commission for Safai Karamcharis, secretaries, directors, commissioners of various bodies being its members along with MLAs K Kathirkamu (Periyakulam), V Kasthuri Vasu (Valparai), and four social workers including Deepthi Sukumar, convenor, Pen Nidhi. 

A Narayanan, founder of Change India, who is fighting the case of manual scavengers at the Madras HC, said its better late than never, and is in continuation to the pressure exerted in the Judicial forum. “It should be more meaningful in its functioning, and should not be a namesake committee. Now, they have realised that they need to form the committee and they would have to file the status report before the Madras High Court,” he said. 

On appointment of members, Narayanan maintained that Deepthi Sukumar seems to be the lone person with expertise in the domain among the four social workers appointed.

“It should ensure that the district level vigilance committee are functional, and proactive. The district vigilance committees should meet on regular basis, and provide inputs to the State Committee to act on the findings of the committee,” Narayanan said. 

Republican Trade Union of India(RTUI) State unit president R Anbuvendan, who is one among the litigants to abolish manual scavenging, echoed the views of Narayanan in the appointment of social workers and demanded that the committee should not remain a paper tiger. 

“Sweepers in the Civic bodies are also manual scavengers. They remove faeces with bare hands. The Committee should focus on rehabilitating them as well. The government should mechanize the whole process of manual scavenging as in the western countries. We have been fighting the ignorance of the cops in dealing with manual scavenging, and the Committee should also look into it,” Anbuvendan said.