Skip to main content

Gujarat Human Rights Commission seeks report on workers entering gutters sans mask

By A Representative
The Gujarat State Human Rights Commission has asked the Patan district collector and the chief officer, Patan municipality, to respond detail within 20 days on what action have they taken regarding a complaint it received on gutter workers being forced to enter into manholes without necessary safety equipment, including oxygen masks, putting at risk their life.
Pointing out that this happened on July 28, 2017, the complaint, by Pankaj Buch of the Ground Reality Foundation, forwarded to Kamal Dayani, social justice and empowerment secretary, and Mukesh Purie, urban development secretary, says that this state of affairs suggests that the contractors acted without caring for the life of the sanitary workers.
Noting that the Prohibition of Employement as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, bars any worker to enter into underground gutters, the complaint further said, the is work usually handed over to a contractor, who illegally sub-contracts, which is against Supreme Court and High Court rulings.
Wondering whether Patan municipality officials checked things, Buch said, there have been several deaths as a result of such negligence on the part of the officials and contractors across. Asking the Gujarat government to cancel all such contracts, he added, concerned officials' responsibility should also be fixed.

Comments

TRENDING

Can free‑living Indian street dogs teach us about how to care for pet dogs?

By Daniel Ramp, Kapil Vishwas Patwardhan, Rosalie Chapple  We give our pet dogs shelter, veterinary care, affection, training and play. We decide when they eat, where they sleep, when they go outside, who they meet, and how they move through the world.

100,000 dead, 4 million displaced: Myanmar's post-coup war grinds on as the junta loses ground

By Nava Thakuria*  At least 100,000 people, including civilians, have been killed in Myanmar's conflicts since the military coup of 1 February 2021, according to the UN. Kelley Anne Eckels-Currie, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, gave the figure to the UN General Assembly in New York on 27 October 2026. She called President Min Aung Hlaing a tyrant who still deliberately attacks civilians to force them into submission.

Delhi’s waste-to-energy plants emit 3.5 times more carbon than coal, new report reveals

Counterview News  Centre for Financial Accountability exposes the “plastic paradox” and calls for an end to climate finance for incineration, urging a shift to genuine zero-waste systems *** A damning new report by the Centre for Financial Accountability (CFA) and the National Alliance for Climate and Ecological Justice (NACEJ) has exposed the severe climate cost of waste-to-energy (WTE) incineration in India. Titled “The Climate Cost of Burning Waste,” the study reveals that Delhi’s WTE plants produce electricity that is significantly more carbon-intensive than coal, challenging the government’s classification of these facilities as "renewable" energy sources.