Nadia Lone
Scavengers, have been named Safaiwalas in Kashmir, the ill-paid people. They are the ones who clean your drains, gutters and even toilets early in the morning even before others wake up from sleep. Though, scavenging is banned in India, there are still people doing it manually or employed by municipal corporations or committees. These people are braving dangerous infections only to earn a paltry amount.
Mushtaq Ahmed, a safai-karamchari, cleans gutters, drains in at least three colonies in Batamaloo area of Srinagar. “There is no other livelihood for us. I have been doing this all to feed my families and give good education to my children. I don’t want them to do what I am doing. I am sure the government will make our lives dignified,” he said.
Present laws on manual scavenging
The laws in place have not proved adequate in eliminating the scavenging. The Parliament has enacted the ‘Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act 2013’. The law has come into force on December 6 2013, in whole of country, except Jammu & Kashmir.
The act intends to-
Eliminate the insanitary latrines.
Employment as Manual Scavengers
Hazardous manual cleaning of sewers and septic tanks
Survey of Manual Scavengers and their rehabilitation
The act also has provisions for the following measures for the rehabilitation of the identified manual scavengers
Initial one-time cash assistance
Scholarship to the children of manual scavenger
Allotment of residential plot and financial assistance for house construction of a ready built house
Training in a livelihood skill with payment of stipend of at least Rs 3000 per month
Provision for subsidy, along with concessional loans, to at least one adult member of the family
But our state, which has a special status in the Union of India, and no law passed by the Parliament gets directly implemented in the state until it gets the green signal from the J&K Legislative assembly, is still awaiting a good law that would bring smiles on the faces of manual scavengers and their children.
Though in our state there are no visible manual scavengers, hundreds of people are working as scavengers who clean toilets, drains and other wastes from the drains.
Ghulam Hassan Sheikh, a sweeper working with a municipal committee says the money he gets is too less to suffice his needs. “I do work as a toilet cleaner in the late evenings, after office hours, to make more money.”