Clean up act for our vote: Safai staff

NEW DELHI: Safai karamcharis have for the first time come out with their own charter of demands for the elections.

Amid chants of ‘Jai Bhim’, hundreds of manual scavengers from across India assembled at Indian Social Institute to take part in this unique exercise.

Bezwada Wilson

, the national convener of

Safai Karamchari

Andolan, said every member of the community should ask politicians to first commit to these demands before asking for his/her vote.

“1,821 citizens of the country have been killed in septic tanks and sewers and there is a death every third day but politicians are not bothered. We are not requesting them but ordering them to take action,” Wilson said.

The organisation had carried out meetings and consultative surveys in over 10 states to finalise the document. “We will now send this

manifesto

to all political parties to hold them accountable when they come to power,” Wilson said.

From a separate ministry for their rehabilitation under PMO, 1% allocation of budget for the sector, a unique right to life card to inclusion of such deaths in National Crime Records Bureau data, the manifesto is divided under five “rights”. The preamble of the manifesto demands that the Prime Minister apologise to the nation for the ongoing deaths in sewers and septic tanks. “It is an attempt to reinforce our right to have a life with dignity and to lay down a detailed roadmap towards it,” the preamble states.

The workers were urged not to vote on religious and polarising issues. The manifesto was then read out aloud to invite suggestions.

The workers have demanded a dedicated session of Parliament on manual scavenging deaths and rehabilitation efforts where a white paper on steps taken so far be presented. The manifesto also puts down a framework to ensure rehabilitation of manual scavengers in the “non-sanitation sector”. For this purpose, SKA has proposed introduction of a unique ‘right to life card’ or RL-21 named after Article 21 of the Constitution.

“This card should enable free access to education, healthcare and employment and no other document should be asked from manual scavengers,” Wilson said.

Some of the other demands include allocating grants instead of current loan schemes, regular pension of Rs 6,000 per month for workers over 55 years, and increase in the compensation given in case of death from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1 crore.

The workers have also demanded fixing of blame for sewer deaths on DMs/DCs.