Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai has ordered strict action against those forcing people into manual scavenging after three sanitation workers died cleaning a septic tank at a hospital in Raipur. The CM has directed officials to ensure assistance to the victims' families and take legal action against those responsible.
Rediff labs analysed the socio-economic caste census 2011 data on number of manual scavengers in India.
The apex court has also sought state-wise details about the steps taken towards abolition of dry latrines, the status of dry latrines, and 'safai karamcharis' in cantonment boards and the railways.
Admitting to shortcomings in existing laws to eradicate manual scavenging, the government on Monday said it would bring a new legislation with more stringent provisions for eliminating the scourge.
Tamil Nadu reported the highest number of such deaths at 194, followed by Gujarat 122, Karnataka 68 and Uttar Pradesh 51.
Named "HomoSEP", ten units are planned to be deployed across Tamil Nadu and the researchers are in touch with sanitation workers to identify the locations, officials said.
"I met the Prime Minister on the issue of manual scavenging. I had gone with a humble request that this custom, which is being practiced in our country, should be abolished. The Prime Minister has assured me that he will pay special attention on this," said Aamir.
Issuing a slew of directions, a bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat (since retired) and Aravind Kumar asked the central and state governments to pay Rs 30 lakh as compensation to the next of kin of those who die while cleaning sewers.
Nine years after a Public Interest Litigation said that over five lakh people were engaged in manual scavenging across the country, the government on Monday told the Supreme Court that a bill aimed at banning such practice will be introduced in Parliament soon.
The bench termed as "inhuman" the situation where the people are not provided with any protective gear and they are dying during the process of cleaning of sewage and manholes across the country.
'Our vision is to innovate as many products as we can and solve as many problems as possible.'
Pitching for better integration of children from disadvantaged groups in private schools, the NAC favoured widening the definition of 'disadvantaged' to include groups such as migrant and street children, children in conflict regions and children of manual scavengers. At the NAC meeting, member Anu Aga, convener of the Working Group on Right to Education, made a presentation on its recommendations to improve RTE.
Between January 1, 2017 and September 18, 2018, one manual scavenger died every five days. He is no caped superhero, but Bezwada Wilson continues to fight the good fight for manual scavengers, says Manavi Kapur.
How robots may eradicate manual scavenging in India.
On Wednesday, September 18, the Supreme Court denounced manual scavenging as 'most uncivilised and inhuman'. 'It is the notion that they are born to do this which needs to change.'
'The crash site must be secured because something small -- like a pipe or hydraulic line -- could hold a critical clue.'
The Supreme Court on Thursday set aside caste-based discriminatory provisions of prison manuals of around 11 states while deprecating the practice of distribution of work and segregation of prisoners in separate wards on basis of their castes.
'All of these guys who are opposing the Supreme Court judgment are from dominant scheduled caste communities and none of them come from the scavenging community.' 'Not a single scavenging leader will oppose this Supreme Court judgment.'
Apart from the two Indians, four others have been selected for the award -- Conchita Carpio-Morales of the Philippines, Dompet Dhuafa of Indonesia, Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers and 'Vientiane Rescue' of Laos
"The Union and the state governments must ensure that manual scavenging is completely eradicated," the bench said.
Issue-based theatre has the capability of playing a transformative role in society -- first through the artists and their families and then, their audience.
'If you think this is a kind of spiritual experience, you will fall into a trap of your own.' 'Why are the people dying, why is the prime minister not thinking about it?'
On the one had are sanitation oriented social enterprises and on the other are awareness raising campaigns by government.
'At least 25 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of plastic chewing gum gets dumped.' 'And because the way people spit it out, there's no possible way this plastic can be recycled.'
President Droupadi Murmu on Wednesday emphasised the need to strengthen affirmative action as a tool for inclusion while urging the rejection of divisive tendencies rooted in perceived social hierarchies.
New census will include questions about religion and castes.
The massive buyers of gold in the past two years have not been the distressed farmers or the manual scavengers, writes Ajit Balakrishnan.
'We cannot let this country be a place where the poor pay to shit.' 'That is inhuman and unacceptable.'
A sweeper and a security guard died on September 9 in Outer Delhi's Mundka area after they inhaled toxic gases inside a sewer they had gone down to clean, the police had said last week.
'A unified Hindu votebank -- the creation of the largest and most reliable votebank in Indian politics, ever,' says Mihir S Sharma.
Now onwards, the village will be known as 'Trump Sulabh Village'.
'I realised we are not doing scavenging because we are illiterate or poor. We are doing it because of the way society is organised.'
It's impossible to get the actual number of people dying and not getting compensation but the number is obviously much more than stingy official estimates. In any case, nowhere in the world are people sent inside gas chambers without oxygen cylinders and masks. Unofficial estimates suggest that on an average, one sanitation worker dies every five days all over the country, writes Shyamal Majumdar.
'The police will give weightage to the socially strong.' 'The dominant caste is usually a powerful person, while the scheduled caste is normally powerless.' 'That is why FIRs are not registered.' 'Most of these complaints are by very poor people against very rich powerful people.'
In a bid to promote the ambitious 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyan' (Clean India Mission), Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani made a surprise visit to a government school in Delhi and participated in a cleaning drive.
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The expert said the mission "lacked a holistic human rights approach'.
Planning Commission had got into a big controversy on this issue.
It, however, noted that as a part of a separate compensation, the Delhi government has paid Rs 1 lakh each to the two families and the remaining Rs 9 lakh will be paid to them within 15 days.
Here's a recap of events that occurred in India in the past 24 hours.
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