A viral video of a sewer in Gurgaon being cleaned by workers manually has sparked outrage on social media with many calling the illegal act inhumane. The incident reportedly happened off Sanath Road recently and was captured on camera by a journalist.
In a post directed at the municipal corporation of Gurgaon, The Tribune's Sumedha Sharma wrote, "That's how sewers are cleaned in the most hi-tech city of Haryana Millennium City, Gurgaon. Last I checked, it's illegal,l inhumane, and an absolute no. Where are the multi-crore sucker machines? This is Sanath Road, inaugurated less than a month ago, and this is the situation. I am sure the contractor has been paid in full, and Gurgaon residents are left to suffer."
She also tagged the office of Haryana chief minister Nayab Singh Saini and state minister Vipul Goel.
The clip showed three workers standing around a flooded manhole, lowering a fourth worker into it with the help of ropes. There was no safety gear around.
Reacting to this, Sheilza Bhatia, a social worker, wrote, "This is a live example of how migrants are impacted due to inhuman ways they are treated by the administration. Section 7 under Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 explicitly stipulates the employer’s obligation to provide safety gear, safety device and cleaning devices to employees working in sewer cleaning."
X user Akshay Singh (@akshay_s41) called it "despicable and shameful". Another user Arun Gopalan (@ArunGopalan) wrote, "SC should take suo moto [cognisance] and the civic chief of this area should be terminated. The buck stops with the civic chief- only then such instances will end. Once action is taken by the highest officer, everyone below will fall in line."
A third user said Gurgaon must learn from Kerala. In February, Kerala became the first state in the country to use robotic technology to clean all its commissioned manholes.
Manual scavenging was banned in 2013, but the ban has not been strictly implemented across the country.
In January this year, the Supreme Court expressed strong displeasure over the non-compliance and further directed six metropolitan cities to stop manual scavenging and manual sewer cleaning.
"We are fed up with passing orders that are not complied with. Either do it or face the consequences," The New Indian Express quoted a two-judge bench of the top court, led by Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and including Justice Aravind Kumar, as saying. "Therefore, we hereby order manual sewer cleaning and manual scavenging shall be stopped in the metropolitan cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad."
The apex court passed the order after hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Dr Balram Singh. He sought a direction for the eradication of manual scavenging in India.
In 2021, a survey found that 58,098 people across the country were working as manual scavengers. The data was presented in the Lok Sabha by the then minister of social justice and empowerment, Ramdas Athawale. He also said that of these manual scavengers, all eligible people have been paid one-time cash assistance and released from this work. Athawale added that 16,057 people have been provided skill development training for alternative livelihood.
Moneycontrol has reached out to the district magistrate, Ajay Kumar. This story will be updated once he responds.
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