Skip to main content

Swachh Gujarat? Manual scavenging continues admist CAG indictment, loud govt claims to the contrary

By A Representative
These photographs were taken by the Ahmedabad-based Dalit rights NGO Navsarjan Trust's senior activist, Natubhai Parmar, on November 13, two days after India’s Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report slammed the Gujarat government for the failure of its “Swachh Gujarat” (Clean Gujarat) campaign and existence of “several cases” of manual scavenging, banned in the country. The snaps were taken in three towns, Surendranagar, Wadhwan and Sayala of Gujarat, and a grim reminder that there is no impact of the Swachh Bharat campaign in Gujarat and manual scavenging continues unabated, despite official denials. CAG had also regretted that though the Gujarat government was asked to take "appropriate and swift action" to verify "each and every case" of manual scavenging, CAG did not provide a satisfactory answer to Government of India.

Comments

  1. We as a nation with Manu Smiriti and apartheid has yet to learn Dignity of human beings. We can shout and blame other nations about our poverty but cannot blame our cast system and some of our superstitions except on ourselves.
    Why is that we in India are not capable to invent equipment to clean human waste? Do we think that such innovation will bring no fame but shame.
    We have to break away from this cycle of untouchability. Modi can have many AARTIS at Kashi but will that wash our sins of inhumanity. WHY NO VOICE FOR PEOPLE WHO SERVE US AND KEEP US HEALTHY

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

NOTE: Hateful, abusive comments won't be published. -- Editor

TRENDING

A fearless spirit lost: Rebecca Thomson dies at 17-hour Catalina Swim Mark

By Harsh Thakor  On July 26, 2026, Rebecca “Becky” Thomson suffered cardiac arrest while attempting the Catalina Channel Swim — a marathon open water crossing from Catalina Island to the California mainland. After swimming for 17 hours, Thomson collapsed in the water. Despite the painstaking efforts of emergency responders and the medical staff at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, she succumbed to a devastating hypoxic brain injury and died Friday evening.

Hyderabad-based Urdu university "bars" entry of its new chancellor, who had "initiated" reforms in institute

Counterview Desk In an unusual controversy, Aslam Parvaiz, vice-chancellor of of the Hyderabad-based Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) has restricted the entry of its newly appointed Chancellor, Firoz Bakht Ahmed, allegedly because he was trying to initiate reforms, including setting up of a Maulana Azad Center for Composite Culture and Progressive Studies, Model Madrasa, Center for Empowerment of Muslim Women, Course for the Development of Legal Vocabulary and Legal Consciousness in Urdu, and so on.

Did the Sabarmati riverfront make Ahmedabad more vulnerable?

By Rajiv Shah  Currently living in Los Angeles, I find myself missing Ahmedabad . Not because I miss living through the city's recent devastating floods—which, experts say, resulted from a combination of extreme meteorological events and chronic urban infrastructure bottlenecks—but because I am unable to make an on-the-spot assessment of the disaster.