Officials of Botad district in Gujarat on Wednesday began an investigation into a video and photograph of a sanitation worker who is purportedly seen manually cleaning a septic tank without any safety equipment. The photograph, geo-tagged to Barwala Nagarpalika in Botad district, was brought to light by the Manav Garima NGO, which shared the video on its social media page.
In the video, the worker can be seen speaking to another man, who was not in the frame, that he needed to do the job fraught with danger to be able to “fill his stomach”. Notably, manual scavenging was outlawed in India under the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013.
Parshottam Vaghela, head of Manav Garima, said, “Today, when India is celebrating Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav and Swachh Bharat Divas, even today, our countrymen are manually cleaning a septic tank. To make matters worse, no safety equipment was given to the man doing this dangerous job. Strict action must be taken in this regard…repeated judgment by Supreme Court and various High Courts in India have underlined this.”
In response to a query from The Indian Express, Akshaya Budania, District Development Officer (DDO) of Botad, who is also the Acting Collector, said, “The Mamlatdar is writing to (Barwala) nagarpalika for an explanation. If verified, we’ll take strict action under manual scavenging prevention act.”
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