We need more like him
National Convener of Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA), Mr Bezwada Wilson, was conferred the Ramon Magsaysay award on Wednesday for “asserting the inalienable right to a life of human dignity”.
He has worked extensively in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to eradicate manual scavenging. Thanks to SKA’s efforts many people were liberated from the banned task of cleaning dry latrines by carrying night soil away. Here’s more on manual scavenging in India:
As per the Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 data of manual scavengers by the Ministry of Rural Development in 2015, there were 1,82,505 manual scavengers in the the country.
Sorry state
Wilson says, “The government should immediately convert all dry latrines into flush-out latrines, mechanise cleaning of septic tanks and construct proper sewage system everywhere. Then, they can stop killing us.”
DC Take
Manual scavenging has to stop. Period. There cannot be any justification as to why successive governments have failed miserably in their efforts to stop this utterly inhumane practice.
If the government of the day, which takes excessive pride in talking about its Swachh Bharat campaign, is serious about the cleanliness drive, then first its entire focus has to be devoted to stop this practice.
There is no meaning to Swachh Bharat if manual scavengers continue to exist. Government must realise that this problem can’t be fixed just by making laws.
