Govt agency to mechanise sewer cleaning that would give self-employment A first-of-its-kind attempt towards safer working conditions and eventual eradication of manual scavenging from the Capital has received stamp of approval of the Delhi High Court. The Delhi Jal Board (DJB), which employs around 14,000 sewage workers, has in a fresh change in policy decided to give preference to those working as manual scavenging in the city and nearby areas while awarding contract for mechanised sewer cleaning. DJB’s counsel Sumit Pushkarna said it was an attempt to get rid of the scourge of the risky task of manual cleaning of sewers and drains by employing modern hybrid machines, tailor-made for the specific needs of narrow streets of Delhi. Each machine supports up to four to five people directly and would give self employment for about 800 to 1,000 families with 200 machines currently proposed for employment. This is an experiment for Delhi, based on lines of the one done in Hyderabad, though with different type of machines. To be given preferences While awarding the contract, the DJB has decided to give first preference to the bidders who are the dependent family of deceased manual scavengers. The second preference will be given to manual scavengers themselves, the third preference to SCs/STs and lastly to others. Mr. Pushkarna said the preference in the tender was to empower the small groups of people, who had been scavenging the areas manually, to now get help from the government or banks to finance their own small tailor-made mechanised units. He said various State agencies, particularly, National Safai Karamchari Finance and Development Commission (NSKFDC), an apex corporation for socio-economic upliftment of Safai Karamcharis, scavengers and their dependents throughout India are financing the bidders through various loan and funding schemes. A company, engaged in the work of sewer cleaning, challenged the eligibility conditions and system of preferences in the tender before the High Court saying it exclude the “general” class of citizens. But a Bench of Justice S. Ravindra Bhat and Justice A.K. Chawla rejected the plea saying the object of such preference is to enable the “meaningful participation of the most marginalised section”. “The present project…promises a positive tomorrow to a significant number of these individuals,” the Bench said adding, “the Central government’s funding of this project, is as an important move — away from largely reservation-dominated affirmative policy paradigm witnessed so far”. “Unseen and forgotten for generations, our society has marginalised manual scavengers to its darkest corners. They are trapped in an eternal caste embrace, with no voice in the society or in any meaningful participation; their children are doomed to the same stereotypical roles assigned to them,” the Bench said. “One hopes that this move is part of a string of other plans and programmes aimed at achieving the objective of elimination of untouchability and the practice of human manual scavenging,” the Bench said. Unseen and forgotten for generations, our society has marginalised manual scavengers to its darkest corners... The present project promises a positive tomorrow to a significant number of these individuals