Manhole Deaths Go Unnoticed
If the PM of the country feels that cleaning is a spiritual task, would he care to explain why it is only the Dalits who are made to do this 'spiritual task'??
In times when the labour of sanitation workers' across the country is being severely exploited and every right of theirs is being violated, any cleanliness drive that does not address the issue of sanitation workers' rights and exploitation is a farce!! Despite the prohibition on manual scavenging, several continue to be employed as manual scavengers in complete violation of the law. Further, they are made to do this without basic provisions such as gloves, footwear and masks. Even as workers in all sectors are becoming increasingly vulnerable to denial of rights, the workers employed in sanitation departments are the most exploited lot.
What does the NDA government's 'cleanliness campaign' has to offer to these exploited workers??
If the PM of the country feels that cleaning is a spiritual task, would he care to explain why it is only the Dalits who are made to do this 'spiritual task'??
If cleanliness is the need of the hour than are why are sanitation workers consistently denied permanent jobs and left at the mercy of highly corrupt and exploitative contractor-administration nexus???
JNUSU appeals all to join in demanding the rights and dignity for the sanitation workers this 2 October 2014, at 10 am at ad block.
On 2 October, we too shall take an oath... an oath that we will continue to fight for the rights and dignity of the sanitation workers!!
Please do join.
The death of two workers in a manhole
in Hennur on 24th September 2014
is a murder, and not an accident!!!!
Arrest the BWSSB officials and contractor
who are responsible for these deaths
“Accident”:
An unusual, unexpected, unforeseen event or occurrence.
“Culpable Homicide”:
Any act causing such bodily injury as is likely to cause death if the act is done with the knowledge that it is likely to cause death, but without any intention to cause death, or to cause such bodily injury as is likely to cause death.(killing)
The death of dalits while cleaning manholes and soak pits, is not an accident. It is murder.
On 24th September 2014, India became the first country to successfully launch a space shuttle and enter the orbit of Mars in its first attempt. The Prime Minister was there to watch the launch live while children were made to go to schools early in the morning to watch the launch live on television. And when crores worth of technology entered Mars’ orbit, the scientists and middle class erupted to celebrate India’s highly advanced technological prowess.
On the same day, two dalit contract workers employed by the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), Shri. Sridhar Nagarajappa (aged 20 years) and Shri. Bandri Marappa (aged 22 years), died a most painful death suffocating on deathly gases while cleaning a manhole in Hennur, Bangalore.
The irony cannot be lost at all. Technological advancements are lauded for landing on Mars, while in the IT capital of the country workers perish due to asphyxiation in manholes.
This begs too many questions. What stops the ruling class and castes, and the scientists, from developing technologies and adopting practices that ensure mechanical cleaning of waste and manholes? Why is it that workers, entirely dalit, are made to pay with their lives? Why are these workers, on an everyday basis, forced to clean clogged manholes, sewers and soak pits with their bare hands and submerging their bodies in flowing faeces. Indeed while death lingers over them every single moment they work, their dignity is murdered every moment by this barbaric nature of work imposed on them due to their caste and poverty. Can we tolerate dalits being stigmatised and linked to waste for the last 2000 years?
Over the past few years, 33 contract powrakarmikas (sewerage workers) have lost their lives while cleaning manholes and soak pits in various parts of Karnataka. Can this still be called an “accident”?
When it is known that the manholes, sewers and soak pits are literally gas chambers filled with noxious gases known as “sewer gas” that can extinguish life in a matter of seconds, then having workers enter and clean these without any safety equipments or precautions is nothing short of murder yet the perpetrators of this heinous crime always go unpunished.
And even as the lives of these workers are snatched away, citizens, so-called civil society and the bureaucracy remain unaffected. More than 6 decades of rule by various political parties such as the Congress, BJP, Janatha Dal (S), etc. in Karnataka and India, have witnessed continuance of these barbaric, inhuman, un-scientific and casteist practices at the cost of the lives of thousands of dalit workers and their families.
Such persists even though the Central Government has passed a new Act, “The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013”, and the Supreme Court and the High Court have also banned such activities. The officials and the contractors do not care for the law. They violate the law with impunity and force workers to work in such inhuman and unhygienic conditions. The police claim ignorance of the law and register cases against the mestris while letting the government officials and contractors go scot free, and furthermore, charge the mestris under lesser offences though what they have committed is murder. The politicians fail to even murmur an apologetic statement acknowledging these inhuman deaths.
This has to stop. We will not let the deaths of these workers go in vain. Our struggle is declared and these are our demands:
• Stop These Murders.
• Arrest the Killers who are none other than the officials of the BWSSB who are responsible for these deaths and charge them for culpable homicide under Section 304
• Pay compensation of Rs. 25 lakhs to all the martyrs whose lives were snatched away while protecting the health of the citizens.
• Stop cleaning of manholes and soak pits manually.
• Follow the Supreme Court Guidelines!
• Erect a Memorial for Died Workers!
• Obey the law of the land.
AICCTU
ALL INDIA CENTRAL COUNCIL OF TRADE UNIONS
BBMP Guttige Powarakarmikara Sangha
BWSSB Guttige Karmikara Sangha
Contact: S. Balan – 9448048131;
Email: aicctu.karnataka@yahoo.co.in
If the PM of the country feels that cleaning is a spiritual task, would he care to explain why it is only the Dalits who are made to do this 'spiritual task'??
In times when the labour of sanitation workers' across the country is being severely exploited and every right of theirs is being violated, any cleanliness drive that does not address the issue of sanitation workers' rights and exploitation is a farce!! Despite the prohibition on manual scavenging, several continue to be employed as manual scavengers in complete violation of the law. Further, they are made to do this without basic provisions such as gloves, footwear and masks. Even as workers in all sectors are becoming increasingly vulnerable to denial of rights, the workers employed in sanitation departments are the most exploited lot.
What does the NDA government's 'cleanliness campaign' has to offer to these exploited workers??
If the PM of the country feels that cleaning is a spiritual task, would he care to explain why it is only the Dalits who are made to do this 'spiritual task'??
If cleanliness is the need of the hour than are why are sanitation workers consistently denied permanent jobs and left at the mercy of highly corrupt and exploitative contractor-administration nexus???
JNUSU appeals all to join in demanding the rights and dignity for the sanitation workers this 2 October 2014, at 10 am at ad block.
On 2 October, we too shall take an oath... an oath that we will continue to fight for the rights and dignity of the sanitation workers!!
Please do join.
The death of two workers in a manhole
in Hennur on 24th September 2014
is a murder, and not an accident!!!!
Arrest the BWSSB officials and contractor
who are responsible for these deaths
“Accident”:
An unusual, unexpected, unforeseen event or occurrence.
“Culpable Homicide”:
Any act causing such bodily injury as is likely to cause death if the act is done with the knowledge that it is likely to cause death, but without any intention to cause death, or to cause such bodily injury as is likely to cause death.(killing)
The death of dalits while cleaning manholes and soak pits, is not an accident. It is murder.
On 24th September 2014, India became the first country to successfully launch a space shuttle and enter the orbit of Mars in its first attempt. The Prime Minister was there to watch the launch live while children were made to go to schools early in the morning to watch the launch live on television. And when crores worth of technology entered Mars’ orbit, the scientists and middle class erupted to celebrate India’s highly advanced technological prowess.
On the same day, two dalit contract workers employed by the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), Shri. Sridhar Nagarajappa (aged 20 years) and Shri. Bandri Marappa (aged 22 years), died a most painful death suffocating on deathly gases while cleaning a manhole in Hennur, Bangalore.
The irony cannot be lost at all. Technological advancements are lauded for landing on Mars, while in the IT capital of the country workers perish due to asphyxiation in manholes.
This begs too many questions. What stops the ruling class and castes, and the scientists, from developing technologies and adopting practices that ensure mechanical cleaning of waste and manholes? Why is it that workers, entirely dalit, are made to pay with their lives? Why are these workers, on an everyday basis, forced to clean clogged manholes, sewers and soak pits with their bare hands and submerging their bodies in flowing faeces. Indeed while death lingers over them every single moment they work, their dignity is murdered every moment by this barbaric nature of work imposed on them due to their caste and poverty. Can we tolerate dalits being stigmatised and linked to waste for the last 2000 years?
Over the past few years, 33 contract powrakarmikas (sewerage workers) have lost their lives while cleaning manholes and soak pits in various parts of Karnataka. Can this still be called an “accident”?
When it is known that the manholes, sewers and soak pits are literally gas chambers filled with noxious gases known as “sewer gas” that can extinguish life in a matter of seconds, then having workers enter and clean these without any safety equipments or precautions is nothing short of murder yet the perpetrators of this heinous crime always go unpunished.
And even as the lives of these workers are snatched away, citizens, so-called civil society and the bureaucracy remain unaffected. More than 6 decades of rule by various political parties such as the Congress, BJP, Janatha Dal (S), etc. in Karnataka and India, have witnessed continuance of these barbaric, inhuman, un-scientific and casteist practices at the cost of the lives of thousands of dalit workers and their families.
Such persists even though the Central Government has passed a new Act, “The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013”, and the Supreme Court and the High Court have also banned such activities. The officials and the contractors do not care for the law. They violate the law with impunity and force workers to work in such inhuman and unhygienic conditions. The police claim ignorance of the law and register cases against the mestris while letting the government officials and contractors go scot free, and furthermore, charge the mestris under lesser offences though what they have committed is murder. The politicians fail to even murmur an apologetic statement acknowledging these inhuman deaths.
This has to stop. We will not let the deaths of these workers go in vain. Our struggle is declared and these are our demands:
• Stop These Murders.
• Arrest the Killers who are none other than the officials of the BWSSB who are responsible for these deaths and charge them for culpable homicide under Section 304
• Pay compensation of Rs. 25 lakhs to all the martyrs whose lives were snatched away while protecting the health of the citizens.
• Stop cleaning of manholes and soak pits manually.
• Follow the Supreme Court Guidelines!
• Erect a Memorial for Died Workers!
• Obey the law of the land.
AICCTU
ALL INDIA CENTRAL COUNCIL OF TRADE UNIONS
BBMP Guttige Powarakarmikara Sangha
BWSSB Guttige Karmikara Sangha
Contact: S. Balan – 9448048131;
Email: aicctu.karnataka@yahoo.co.in
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