20,000 signatures, video force Gujarat official to "investigate" manual scavenging in Surendranagar district

By Sangeeta Rane*
Amidst current imbroglio around the Una incident in which four Dalits were thrashed for skinning a dead cow, the Surendranagar district collector, seeking to address Dalits' issues, has decided to take steps to “investigate” the practice of employing manual scavengers, considered the lowest category in Dalit hierarchy.
The district collecting has decided to hold a meeting next week with the chief executive officers (CEOs) of the district's seven municipalities following the Video Volunteers, the media and human rights organisation, calling on him on August 1, submitting a video (click HERE) as proof of manual scavenging being practiced.
Along with the video, a petition with more than 20,000 signatories was handed over to him. The petition, submitted by Video Volunteers Community correspondent Bipin Solanki, demanded that justice and action against the “negligent attitude” of Dhrangadra municipality in Surendranagar district for “blatantly violating the Prohibition of Employment of Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013.”
“The district collector was surprised that manual scavenging is still practiced in his district. He said that he will set up a committee for regular monitoring of the region’s sanitation work,” said Solanki, whose video is responsible for highlighting the ongoing issue. Solanki reports on human rights violations, particularly caste-based discrimination in Surendranagar.
“Even as thousands of Dalits are protesting the streets of Gujarat, it is an outrage to see the persistent practice of manual scavenging in Dhrangadhra Municipality and many other places”, said Stalin K, director, Video Volunteers.
The issue was highlighted by Solanki in May through a video report which shows Umesh, 23, a young man belonging to Valmiki caste, enter a filthy sewer without any protective gears and cleaning equipment, and clean it with their bare hands. Such employment without protective gear and equipment is an offence under the Prohibition of Employment of Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013.
The video exposes Dhrangadra CEO’s denial of the existence of manual scavenging. The official is seen passing the blame on to the contractor. “These workers are not our responsibility since they are hired by a contractor. I am well-aware that such actions are illegal and thus the municipality does not engage any manual scavengers,” the official had told Solanki.
Enraged by the negligence of administration and their lack of empathy, Video Volunteershad launched an online petition, appealing to the District Collector to take action against Charu Mori, the official, and appealed for effective and periodic monitoring of sanitation work. Over a period of three months, the petition gathered more than 20,000 signatures across the country.
Video Volunteers is a global initiative that empowers disadvantaged communities with socially-impactful stories and data gathering skills, even as training them to use video as a tool to mobilise for change. In India, the organisation is spread across 200 marginalised communities.
---
*Communication Coordinator, Video Volunteers

Comments

Plastic burning in homes threatens food, water and air across Global South: Study

By Jag Jivan In a groundbreaking study spanning 26 countries across the Global South , researchers have uncovered the widespread and concerning practice of households burning plastic waste as a fuel for cooking, heating, and other domestic needs. The research, published in Nature Communications , reveals that this hazardous method of managing both waste and energy poverty is driven by systemic failures in municipal services and the unaffordability of clean alternatives, posing severe risks to human health and the environment.

Economic superpower’s social failure? Inequality, malnutrition and crisis of India's democracy

By Vikas Meshram India may be celebrated as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, but a closer look at who benefits from that growth tells a starkly different story. The recently released World Inequality Report 2026 lays bare a country sharply divided by wealth, privilege and power. According to the report, nearly 65 percent of India’s total wealth is owned by the richest 10 percent of its population, while the bottom half of the country controls barely 6.4 percent. The top one percent—around 14 million people—holds more than 40 percent, the highest concentration since 1961. Meanwhile, the female labour force participation rate is a dismal 15.7 percent.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

From colonial mercantilism to Hindutva: New book on the making of power in Gujarat

By Rajiv Shah Professor Ghanshyam Shah ’s latest book, “ Caste-Class Hegemony and State Power: A Study of Gujarat Politics ”, published by Routledge , is penned by one of Gujarat ’s most respected chroniclers, drawing on decades of fieldwork in the state. It seeks to dissect how caste and class factors overlap to perpetuate the hegemony of upper strata in an ostensibly democratic polity. The book probes the dominance of two main political parties in Gujarat—the Indian National Congress and the BJP—arguing that both have sustained capitalist growth while reinforcing Brahmanic hierarchies.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

The greatest threat to our food system: The aggressive push for GM crops

By Bharat Dogra Thanks to the courageous resistance of several leading scientists who continue to speak the truth despite increasing pressures from the powerful GM crop and GM food lobby , the many-sided and in some contexts irreversible environmental and health impacts of GM foods and crops, as well as the highly disruptive effects of this technology on farmers, are widely known today.

UP tribal woman human rights defender Sokalo released on bail

By A Representative After almost five months in jail, Adivasi human rights defender and forest worker Sokalo Gond has been finally released on bail.Despite being granted bail on October 4, technical and procedural issues kept Sokalo behind bars until November 1. The Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) and the All India Union of Forest Working People (AIUFWP), which are backing Sokalo, called it a "major victory." Sokalo's release follows the earlier releases of Kismatiya and Sukhdev Gond in September. "All three forest workers and human rights defenders were illegally incarcerated under false charges, in what is the State's way of punishing those who are active in their fight for the proper implementation of the Forest Rights Act (2006)", said a CJP statement.

Would breaking idols, burning books annihilate caste? Recalling a 1972 Dalit protest

By Rajiv Shah A few days ago, I received an email alert from a veteran human rights leader who has fought many battles in Gujarat for the Dalit cause — both through ground-level campaigns and courtroom struggles. The alert, sent in Gujarati by Valjibhai Patel, who heads the Council for Social Justice, stated: “In 1935, Babasaheb Ambedkar burnt the Manusmriti . In 1972, we broke the idol of Krishna , whom we regarded as the creator of the varna (caste) system.”

May the Earth Be Auspicious: Vedic ecology and contemporary crisis in Ashok Vajpeyi’s poetry

By Ravi Ranjan* Ashok Vajpeyi, born in 1941, occupies a singular position in contemporary Hindi poetry as a poet whose work quietly but decisively reorients modern literary consciousness toward ethical, ecological, and civilizational questions. Across more than six decades of writing, Vajpeyi has forged a poetic idiom marked by restraint, philosophical attentiveness, and moral seriousness, resisting both rhetorical excess and ideological simplification.

Search This Blog