Over a million Indians engaged in manual scavenging (To go with Abolish manual scavenging by 2012-end, urges NAC)
October 23rd, 2010 - 10:20 pm ICT by IANS
New Delhi, Oct 23 (IANS) The National Advisory Council, headed by Congress chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Saturday expressed its distress over manual scavenging in the country and urged the government to abolish it by 2012.
Here are some details -
# About 1.3 million people are employed in the practice in the country.
# In 1993, parliament passed the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, which declared the employment of scavengers or the construction of dry (non-flush) latrines to be an offence punishable with imprisonment and a fine. But no one has been punished so far.
# NAC says the practice is viewed as an issue of sanitation rather than issue of human dignity, and wants to ensure the final end of this most degrading practice of caste discrimination.
# Asks central government to coordinate with all state, local governments and also central government departments including the Railways, to ensure that this practice is fully abolished.
# Asks for demolition of all dry latrines
# It asks government to conduct a psycho-social and livelihood rehabilitation in modern marketable skills of all manual scavengers and their families.
# Asks for special programme for education, including higher education and computer education of all children of manual scavengers.
# Asks Ministry of Social Justice to formulate 100 percent centrally sponsored scheme to support the rehabilitation initiatives.
# Recommends that the implementation of this law should be monitored at the highest levels of the central and state governments.
# Promises to monitor on a quarterly basis the progress in abolition of manual scavenging.
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- Dry latrines exist in four states: Minister - Mar 08, 2010
- End manual scavenging in six months, PM tells states - Jun 17, 2011
- Govt. taking effective steps to address challenges of Scheduled Caste women, children: Tirath - Jan 19, 2011
- Home Ministry issues advisory on crime against SC/ST - May 02, 2011
- Rajasthan town free from manual cleaning of toilets (Nov 19 is World Toilet Day) - Nov 19, 2009
- Complete the conversion of dry latrines into water seal latrines in rural areas by March 2009: Meira - Jun 13, 2008
- Court notice to Delhi government on anti-scavenging law - May 08, 2009
- Sulabh founder to address Cambridge University students - Jan 20, 2011
- Inhuman bondage: 1.3 million manual scavengers exist in India despite ban - Jul 27, 2009
- New schemes in the offing for livelihood security (Factfile) - Mar 12, 2012
Tags: abolition, caste discrimination, central government departments, computer education, congress chairperson, human dignity, imprisonment, livelihood, local governments, manual scavengers, marketable skills, nac, national advisory council, prohibition act, quarterly basis, railways, sanitation, social justice, sonia gandhi, state governments