Delhi High Court seeks answers on manual scavenging

A bench of Justice G S Sistani and Justice Jyoti Singh said the affidavit should also highlight compliance with the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act and rehabilitation of manual scavengers.

The Delhi High Court on Friday took serious note of the recent deaths in the city due to manual scavenging and directed all the concerned authorities including the Delhi government, Public Works Department (PWD), three civic bodies to file affidavits detailing whether they are hiring people, directly or indirectly through contractors to clean the sewers or not.

New Delhi, India - Sept. 7, 2017: xxxxxxx in New Delhi, India, on Thursday, September 7, 2017. (Photo by Ravi Choudhary/ Hindustan Times)(Ravi Choudhary/HT PHOTO)

A bench of Justice G S Sistani and Justice Jyoti Singh said the affidavit should also highlight compliance with the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act and rehabilitation of manual scavengers.

The court was hearing a plea by lawyer and social, activist Amit Sahni, who contended that there are instances when civic bodies engage people for cleaning sewers and septic tanks either directly or indirectly by outsourcing the work to private contractors.

He said it is done to take advantage of the loopholes in the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Rehabilitation Act, 2013 which does not impose a blanket ban on the activity, but only says safety gear should be provided to manual scavengers.

The court observed that the death of people dying because of manual scavenging shows that authorities are not complying with the Act and if the deaths have taken place, someone has to go to jail.

Besides the Delhi government, the high court asked municipal bodies, Delhi Jal Board, Delhi Cantonment Board and PWD to file their affidavits.

The court observed that the government spends a huge amount of money on election advertisements and it should spend some amount on sensitizing people about manual scavenging as so many people die due to this practice every year.