HC orders fresh survey of manual scavengers

The Delhi High Court today ordered the Delhi government and the civic bodies to carry out a fresh survey of manual scavengers in terms of a 2013 law enacted for their rehabilitation and prohibiting such a practice.
A bench of Justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Ashutosh Kumar also directed the Delhi government to constitute a vigilance committee in each district and sub-division to oversee the economic and social rehabilitation of manual scavengers.
The court also ordered designation of a state commission for safai karamchaaris which will perform the function of monitoring and ensuring the implementation of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013.

The Delhi government was further directed to appoint inspectors, as provided under the Act, who would monitor if any of the provisions of the law were being violated.
The court ordered that the fresh survey has to be completed and a report placed before it by the next date of hearing on March 15, and warned that on failure to comply with the order contempt action could be initiated against the authorities.
The court was hearing of a PIL filed in 2007 for rehabilitation of manual scavengers.

It had earlier termed as "disgraceful" the existence of manual scavenging in the city despite a law prohibiting such a practice and said, "We are a country of poor people but not for poor people."

It is "ridiculous and shocking", the court had observed when informed by Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DSLSA's) Member Secretary, Dharmesh Sharma, that one of the manual scavengers was a "graduate".
DSLSA, in an interim report, had said that there were manual scavengers in the national capital.