Mumbai News: NHRC Issues Notice To BMC For Human Rights Violations Over Unsafe Manual Scavenging In M East Ward

Mumbai: The National Human Rights Commission has issued notices to the commissioner, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, district collector, commissioner of police, and the assistant municipal commissioner, M East ward, saying that the BMC is violating human rights by permitting manual scavengers to clean sewage drains with bare hands, risking their health and lives. The agencies have been asked to prepare a list of victims of manual scavenging in the ward and reply to the notice by October 24.

Complaint From Citizens’ Forum

The notice was issued earlier this week in response to a complaint in April 2023 by the Govandi Citizens' Welfare Forum, seeking the commission's intervention in stopping blatant violations of laws forbidding manual scavenging, including the Prohibition of Employment of Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013.

Evidence of Unsafe Conditions

Advocate Faiyaz Alam Shaikh, convenor of the citizens' group, said they provided the commission photographs as proof that labourers were working in unsafe conditions in Kamala Rajan Nagar and Baiganwadi in M East.

Dinesh Berdia of Sangharsh, a group working for the abolition of manual scavenging and the caste-based exploitation involved in the work, said, "Govandi residents brought it to the notice of the human rights commission, but it is happening all over Mumbai. Contractors entrust the work to subcontractors who hired unorganised labourers. They do not care about the lives or health of the workers and their families," said Berdia.

BMC’s Tender Process and Reality on Ground

The commission said that the BMC appoints contractors by inviting tender for desilting of minor drains, road side drains and culverts by using manpower and machinery. The contractor removes silt and floating material from minor nallahs and road-side drains by deploying labourers and machinery as these are storm water outlets meant to carry rainwater discharge.

However, human rights activists pointed out that in Mumbai, storm water drains have become sewage lines, with illegal discharge of domestic and industrial waste.

NHRC Rejects BMC Safety Claims

In an earlier reply, the BMC had told the commission that desilting is done by manpower with safety gears, such as hand gloves, helmets, reflecting jackets, safety shoes, with contractors penalised for lapses. In case the drains are difficult for cleaning equipment to access, contractors use labourers, but under precautions and safety advice of a medical officer.

The commission debunked the claims, saying that labourers were found cleaning gutters with bare hands and the concerned authorities failed to explain this in their report dated August 25, 2023. The commission further stated that even if it was the contractors who employed labourers for cleaning the gutters, it does not absolve the principal employer - the BMC - of their liability for safeguarding the manual scavengers.

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Pending Response Could Lead to Coercive Action

The commission said that there appears to be a violation of the 2013 law. The commission said the M East ward has not replied to its show cause notice in May 2024, as to why a compensation of Rs 50,000 each should not be given to manual scavengers for violation of their human rights. The commission said that failure to reply to the notice will lead to coercive process under the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993.

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