Gujarat share in manual scavengers' death 17% of India: Modi 'lying India is ODF'

Outside a public toilet in Ahmedabad

Gujarat's share in the death of manual scavengers due to asphyxiation in gutters has been a whopping 17% of India, or 130 out of 776. Union social justice and empowerment minister Ramdas Athawala has told the Lok Sabha that of the 130 deaths in Gujarat, which took place since 1993, the state government has compensated a sum of Rs 10 lakh, as required by a Supreme Court judgment, only in 50 cases.
Citing information received from the National Commission for Safai Karmacharis, Athawala said, 15 have been only partially compensated, while as for the rest of the 44 cases no compensation has been paid. Gujarat's deaths are the second highest compared to all other states, with Tamil Nadu leading with 213 deaths, or 27% of the country. However, Tamil Nadu has fully compensated for 160 deaths.
Referring to the Lok Sabha answer, senior environmentalist Mahesh Pandya of the Paryavaran Mitra said, this information, coupled with the statistics on the number of manual scavengers identified by the Government of India tabled in the Lok Sabha, clearly suggest that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was "lying" while declaring at Gandhi Ashram on October 2, on the 150th birth anniversary of the Mahatma, that India is open defecation free (ODF).

Mahesh Pandya

Pointing out that the Lok Sabha answer by Athawale shows the Government of India has identified 56,595 manual scavengers across the country, Pandya said, "No one else but his minister has revealed these figured on the floor of the House on November 19, clearly exposing Modi's lie." He added, of the 56,595 manual scavengers,108 have been identified in Gujarat, which is a "clear under-statement."
According to Pandya, on March 22, 2018, the minister had said that the government had identified 13,460 manual scavengers across India, but the state-wise figures did not reveal how many of them were from Gujarat. According to Pandya, "Over the last one-and-a-half years, the number of manual scavengers appear to have multiplied, reaching 56,595, and it is during period only 108 from Gujarat were identified."

Wondering whether this means that despite the Swacch Bharat Abhiyan manual scavenging and open defecation have seen such a huge rise, too, Pandya said, this clearly suggests that only India or Gujarat have not become open defecation free, but ther is also failure to implement the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, which forbids the employment of any person for the task of manual scavenging, including making anyone enter into gutters without safety equipment.

Comments

Dalit rights and political tensions: Why is Mevani at odds with Congress leadership?

While I have known Jignesh Mevani, one of the dozen-odd Congress MLAs from Gujarat, ever since my Gandhinagar days—when he was a young activist aligned with well-known human rights lawyer Mukul Sinha’s organisation, Jan Sangharsh Manch—he became famous following the July 2016 Una Dalit atrocity, in which seven members of a family were brutally assaulted by self-proclaimed cow vigilantes while skinning a dead cow, a traditional occupation among Dalits.

Powering pollution, heating homes: Why are Delhi residents opposing incineration-based waste management

While going through the 50-odd-page report Burning Waste, Warming Cities? Waste-to-Energy (WTE) Incineration and Urban Heat in Delhi , authored by Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran of the well-known advocacy group Centre for Financial Accountability, I came across a reference to Sukhdev Vihar — a place where I lived for almost a decade before moving to Moscow in 1986 as the foreign correspondent of the daily Patriot and weekly Link .

Boeing 787 under scrutiny again after Ahmedabad crash: Whistleblower warnings resurface

A heart-wrenching tragedy has taken place in Ahmedabad. As widely reported, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane crashed shortly after taking off from the city’s airport, currently operated by India’s top tycoon, Gautam Adani. The aircraft was carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members. As expected, the crash has led to an outpouring of grief across the country. At the same time, there have been demands for the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and the Civil Aviation Minister.

Ahmedabad's civic chaos: Drainage woes, waterlogging, and the illusion of Olympic dreams

In response to my blog on overflowing gutter lines at several spots in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur, a heavily populated area, a close acquaintance informed me that it's not just the middle-class housing societies that are affected by the nuisance. Preeti Das, who lives in a posh locality in what is fashionably called the SoBo area, tells me, "Things are worse in our society, Applewood."

Global NGO slams India for media clampdown during conflict, downplays Pakistan

A global civil rights group, Civicus has taken strong exception to how critical commentaries during the “recent conflict” with Pakistan were censored in India, with journalists getting “targeted”. I have no quarrel with the Civicus view, as the facts mentioned in it are all true.

Whither SCOPE? Twelve years on, Gujarat’s official English remains frozen in time

While writing my previous blog on how and why Narendra Modi went out of his way to promote English when he was Gujarat chief minister — despite opposition from people in the Sangh Parivar — I came across an interesting write-up by Aakar Patel, a well-known name among journalists and civil society circles.

Remembering Vijay Rupani: A quiet BJP leader who listened beyond party lines

Late evening on June 12, a senior sociologist of Indian origin, who lives in Vienna, asked me a pointed question: Of the 241 persons who died as a result of the devastating plane crash in Ahmedabad the other day, did I know anyone? I had no hesitation in telling her: former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani, whom I described to her as "one of the more sensible persons in the BJP leadership."

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

Why India’s renewable energy sector struggles under 2,735 compliance hurdles

Recently, during a conversation with an industry representative, I was told how easy it is to set up a startup in Singapore compared to India. This gentleman, who had recently visited Singapore, explained that one of the key reasons Indians living in the Southeast Asian nation prefer establishing startups there is because the government is “extremely supportive” when it comes to obtaining clearances. “They don’t want to shift operations to India due to the large number of bureaucratic hurdles,” he remarked.

Search This Blog