PLAGIARISM SCAN REPORT
Date 2020-08-26
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“In the rainy season, she started, it is really unpleasant. Water gets mixed with the shit and when we carry it on our heads, it drips down from
the baskets on to our clothing, our bodies, our faces. When I return home stinking, I find it hard to eat food sometimes. The smell never goes.
And then in summer there is, many a time, no availability of water to wash your hands before eating. It's difficult to figure out which is worse.”
(Account of a worker engaged in Manual Scavenging) INTRODUCTON The constitution of India enshrines the idea of civil rights protection
and the source of caste and class annihilation i.e., article 17 (abolition of untouchability). Unfortunately, the spirit of article 17, Constitution of
India, was followed in principle rather than in practice. A good number of legislations like Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 , Schedule
Castes and Schedule Tribes Act of 1988 etc., were enacted to ensure an equitable and casteless society, but the condition of the weaker
sections has not ameliorated in reality. Even today caste remains a major source of occupational and class division in the society. Manual
scavenging is a profession which has been in existence since the human civilization and its compartmentalization into varna system in India.
Considered as a filthy occupation, the job is preformed exclusively by dalits and specifically by a sub-caste of dalits who are viewed even by
other dalits sub-castes as doomed and ‘untouchable’. This barbarous practice involving removal of human excrements from dry toilets
manually, carrying baskets and excrements to dumping sites for disposal, is perhaps the worst form of human rights violation. Manual
scavenging is incessant in India, despite being labeled popularly as unacceptable and hazardous as a human waste disposal method, despite
scientific and technological advancements in the sanitation sphere, and despite the availability economic and sought after alternatives which
can efface the twin problems of manual scavenging and safe disposal of human excreta. It passes on from one generation to the other and
the culture of acceptance prevailing among the workers also leads to the deprivation of their basic human rights. HISTORICAL
BACKGROUND Manual scavenging is believed to have started in 1214 in Europe when the first toilets were made for public use. In 1870,
flush type toilet was invented by S.S. Helior, and it became a common use in the western world. This led to the disuse of other types of toilets
in the western nations. Western Europe saw the abandonment of all surface toilets in mid-1950s. Thus, India is perhaps the only country in
the world where a particular community is traditionally responsible for sanitation and cleaning jobs by removing the waste products of the
society including the human excreta. CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS The Constitution of India guaranteed to all citizens basic human rights
protected under the Fundamental Rights, Part III. Since the roots of manual scavenging are entrenched in casteist oppression, the practice is
a gross violation of Article 14 (The Right to Equality), Article 15 (The Abolition of Caste Discrimination) and Article 17 (The Abolition of
Untouchability). Further, the practice also infringes on Article 21 (Right to Life and Personal Liberty) as the courts have interpreted the same to
include the Right to Dignity within its ambit. The Supreme Court has established human dignity as a fundamental and inalienable step in the
journey towards actualizing socio-economic welfare. The practice is also a breach of Article 23 (Prohibition of Traffic in Human Beings and
Forced Labor etc.). Manual scavenging is also a violation of Article 42 (Right to Just and Humane Conditions of Work) of the constitution. This
practice is also not in consonance with the constitutional safeguards under Article 46 (Promotion of Educational and Economic Interests of
Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other Weaker Sections). MANUAL SCAVENGING FROM THE PURVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL
HUMAN RIGHTS INSTRUMENTS A multitude of United Nations agencies and international human rights bodies have also addressed manual
scavenging: UNICEF has approached manual scavenging as a water and sanitation issue; the World Health Organization (WHO) has taken
up manual scavenging as a health issue; UNDP has a special task force on the issue of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes; UN Women
addresses manual scavenging based upon that fact that 95 percent of manual scavengers who clean dry toilets and open defecation are
women; and the ILO focuses on ending manual scavenging by supporting implementation of relevant government policies in Uttar Pradesh,
Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Gujarat. COMMITTEES/COMMISSIONS Besides, many initiatives the Government had constituted
many committees/commissions for investigating and recommendations regarding the issue of Manual Scavenging. • Barve Committee • Kaka
Kalelkar Commission • Malkani Committee • Committee on Customary Rights • Pandya Committee • Central Advisory Board for Harijan
Welfare NHRC’S TAKE ON THE ISSUE The NHRC has been actively pursuing the need to end the degrading practice of manual scavenging
in the country. It has taken up this matter with Central and State Governments through a series of personal interventions and meetings. The
NHRC has been monitoring this problem with respect to the Adoption of the Employment of Manual Scavengers & Construction of Dry
Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993, carrying out of a survey to identify the number of scavengers and their dependents, imparting of training to the
liberated scavengers, rehabilitation under the prescribed funding pattern and making provision in building by-laws not to sanction new building
without provision of pour flush latrines. The Commission has found that surveys have not been carried out in most of the states nor have
identified scavengers in most cases been properly rehabilitated. At present dry latrines still exist in certain areas of the country.
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