Skip to main content

Three years on, Gujarat govt "fails" to implement Supreme Court order to compensate 146 manhole deaths

A manhole worker in Ahmedabad, March 22
By Our Representative
In what is being interpreted as a clear violation of the Supreme Court order, the Gujarat government has not begun implementation of the three-year-old apex court order, dated March 27, 2014, requiring payment of Rs 10 lakh compensation to each of the manual scavengers who died cleaning up gutters across the state since 1993.
The order also required all state governments to provide insurance cover worth Rs 10 lakh to all manhole workers, which too remains unimplemented.
Manav Garima Trust, one of Gujarat’s premier civil rights organization fighting for justice to manhole workers, has estimated that between 1993 and till date as many as 146 persons have due to asphyxiation in gutters. Only one person, from Savarkundla, has been paid the compensation so far – that too on March 2, 2017, following the death of a manhole worker a day earlier.
Trust’s director Parsottam Vaghela told Counterview, “On March 16, 2017, we handed over the list of those who should be paid the compensation, as despite the lapse of four years of the apex court judgment, there is no movement in compensating the deaths.”
Vaghela said, “To our utter surprise, we found that the Gujarat government has not even prepared the list of those who have died. We hope, now that we have handed over the list, along with all the details, the state government will act.”
Pointing out that this is not for the first time he has handed over the list, Vaghela revealed, “We have also prepared a separate list of 32 manhole workers, who died on work following the Supreme Court order. I handed over both the lists to Punamchand Parmar, principal secretary, urban development department.”
A scan through official documents suggests how indifferent the state government has been towards the plight of manhole workers. The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, and the model rules made to implement it, ban manhole workers’ entry into gutters and septic tanks without proper security equipment.
As the state governments, including that of Gujarat, did not act, and manhole workers continued to die due to asphyxiation, civil society organizations approached the apex court, which ruled a year later to compensate for the death of manhole workers since 1993 across India.
The apex court also ruled to provide an insurance cover of Rs 10 lakh free of cost to each of the manhole workers, whether working with urban or rural local bodies or with private contractors.
While Gujarat’s panchayat and rural development department came up with a GR on June 21, 2014, the state urban development department followed suit two-and-a-half years later, on December 16, 2016, only after the Manav Garima Trust filed public interest litigation in the matter in the Gujarat High Court to begin implementing of the Supreme Court order.
To suggest that the state government is “acting”, the social justice and empowerment department came up with a separate GR four days later, on December 20, 2016, declaring that it is the responsibility of the panchayat department for rural areas and urban development department for urban areas for ensuring implementation of the apex court order, as also the 2013 Act banning manual scavenging.
“All these GRs have remained on paper, only to show that the state government intends to comply by the legal requirement”, Vaghela says, adding, “The state government has not just not paid the Rs 10 lakh compensation; it has not even provided insurance cover of Rs 10 to each of the manhole workers.”

Comments

TRENDING

Insider plot to kill Deendayal Upadhyay? What RSS pracharak Balraj Madhok said

By Shamsul Islam*  Balraj Madhok's died on May 2, 2016 ending an era of old guards of Hindutva politics. A senior RSS pracharak till his death was paid handsome tributes by the RSS leaders including PM Modi, himself a senior pracharak, for being a "stalwart leader of Jan Sangh. Balraj Madhok ji's ideological commitment was strong and clarity of thought immense. He was selflessly devoted to the nation and society. I had the good fortune of interacting with Balraj Madhok ji on many occasions". The RSS also issued a formal condolence message signed by the Supremo Mohan Bhagwat on behalf of all swayamsevaks, referring to his contribution of commitment to nation and society. He was a leading RSS pracharak on whom his organization relied for initiating prominent Hindutva projects. But today nobody in the RSS-BJP top hierarchy remembers/talks about Madhok as he was an insider chronicler of the immense degeneration which was spreading as an epidemic in the high echelons of th

Central pollution watchdog sees red in Union ministry labelling waste to energy green

By Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran*  “Destructors”, “incinerators” and “waste-to-energy (WTE) incineration” all mean the same thing – indiscriminate burning of garbage! Having a history of about one and a half centuries, WTE incinerators have seen several reboots over the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. 

First-of-its-kind? 'Eco-friendly, low cost' sewage treatment system installed in Gujarat

Counterview Desk Following the installation of the Unconventional Decentralized Multi-Stage Reactor (UDMSR) for sewage treatment, a note on what is claimed to be the  first-of-its-kind technology said, the treated sewage from this system “can be directly utilized for agricultural purposes”, even as proving to be a “saviour in the times of water crisis.”

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

Indo-Bangla border: Farmers facing 'illegal obstacles' in harvesting, transporting yields

  Counterview Desk  In a representation to the chairperson, National Human Rights Commission, human rights defender Kirity Roy, who is secretary, Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM), has said that Border Security Force (BSF) personnel are creating "illegal obstacles" for farmers seeking to harvest their ripened yields and transport them to the market in village Jhaukuthi of Cooch Behar district.

Wasteland, a colonial legacy, being used to 'give away' vast tracts to Ratnagiri refinery

By Fouziya Tehzeeb* William D’Souza, a 55-year old farmer from Kuthethur, Mangalore, was busy mixing cattle feed when we arrived at his doorsteps. Around 25 km from the bustling city of Mangalore, Kuthethur is a lush green village with thick vegetation. On the way to William’s house the idyllic view gets blocked by the flares and smoke arising from the Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL).

'Flawed' argument: Gandhi had minimal role, naval mutinies alone led to Independence

Counterview Desk Reacting to a Counterview  story , "Rewiring history? Bose, not Gandhi, was real Father of Nation: British PM Attlee 'cited'" (January 26, 2016), an avid reader has forwarded  reaction  in the form of a  link , which carries the article "Did Atlee say Gandhi had minimal role in Independence? #FactCheck", published in the site satyagrahis.in. The satyagraha.in article seeks to debunk the view, reported in the Counterview story, taken by retired army officer GD Bakshi in his book, “Bose: An Indian Samurai”, which claims that Gandhiji had a minimal role to play in India's freedom struggle, and that it was Netaji who played the crucial role. We reproduce the satyagraha.in article here. Text: Nowadays it is said by many MK Gandhi critics that Clement Atlee made a statement in which he said Gandhi has ‘minimal’ role in India's independence and gave credit to naval mutinies and with this statement, they concluded the whole freedom struggle.

CAA disregards India's inclusive plural ethos, 'betrays' ideals of freedom struggle: PUCL

Counterview Desk    "Outraged" at the move of the Central government to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA 2019) weeks before the election, the top rights group, People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), has demanded that the law be repealed. 

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Sections of BSF, BGB personnel 'directly or indirectly' involved in cross border smuggling

By Kirity Roy*  The Border Security Force (BSF) of India and the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) of Bangladesh met for 54th Director General level meeting at Dhaka, Bangladesh, on 5th to 9th March, 2024 to discuss on minimizing killings at border area, illegal intrusion, trafficking of drugs and other narcotics, smuggling of arms and ammunitions and other crimes at bordering areas. Further, the summit had an agenda to discuss on overall development in 150 yards area at both sides of the border and design an activity plan for the same.