NEW DELHI
The Supreme Court on Friday, in a judgment, said claims of fraternity, equality and dignity among citizens remain a mere illusion if a sizeable section of society is forced to enter sewers for a living and die trapped in them even a decade after the outlawing of the inhuman practice of manual scavenging.
A Bench headed by Justice S.R. Bhat held the Union and States duty-bound to the pledge to completely eradicate manual scavenging through the stringent implementation of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013.
“Each of us owe to this large segment of the population, who have remained unseen, unheard and muted, in bondage systematically trapped in inhuman conditions,” Justice Bhat wrote.
The court enhanced the compensation payable for sewer deaths to ₹30 lakh from the earlier ₹10 lakh.
“Upon all of us citizens lie the duty of realising true fraternity. It is not without reason that our Constitution has placed great emphasis on the value of dignity and fraternity. But for these two, all other liberties are chimera,” Justice Bhat read out excerpts from the judgment.
The case was listed on February 1, 2024 for further monitoring.
2020 petition
The court had taken judicial notice of the petition filed in 2020 by Balram Singh, which highlighted that people were still dying in sewers though the practice was banned with the introduction of the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993 and the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013.
The apex court itself had reinforced the prohibition and directed the rehabilitation of people, traditionally and otherwise, engaged in the practice in its judgment in Safai Karamchari Andolan and others vs. Union of India.
The judgment had called for their “rehabilitation based on the principles of justice and transformation”. “Persons released from manual scavenging should not have to cross hurdles to receive what is their legitimate due under the law,” the court had stressed.
The court had, during the hearing of the case, collected data from the government on the various steps taken for the rehabilitation of the people falling within the definition of ‘manual scavengers’; abolition/demolition of dry latrines State-wise; status of dry latrines and employment of safai karamcharis in cantonment boards and railways; State-wise set up of municipal corporations and the nature of equipment (as well as the description of technical equipment) deployed by such bodies to mechanise sewage cleaning; and online tracking of sewage deaths and action taken by their authorities, including payment of compensation and rehabilitation of families.
The court had impleaded the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes as respondents in the case.
