High Court says no one cares about 'safai karamcharis', directs civic agencies to inform about welfare schemes

The Delhi High Court has directed all the Delhi civic and municipal agencies to update it about the welfare schemes and the equipment that is provided to sanitation workers, keeping in mind that nobody seemed to be concerned about their condition. The Court even ordered the local agencies to detect the injuries and illnesses suffered by the workers during work and place the data before the court on September 19. The court said that a case regarding prevention of manual scavenging and rehabilitation of workers has been pending in another Court for the past 20 years, but still, nothing has been done by the authorities. “ Nobody is concerned about these workers,” the bench stated, while also trying to seek details of the equipment provided, if at all, to the workers. The observations by the Court came while issuing a notice to the local authorities, the Delhi government and the Centre seeking their stand on the issue which has been raised before the court by a municipal councilor of South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC). The petition has been filed by Abhishek Dutt alleging that proper gear and equipment has not been provided to the sanitation workers resulting in deaths as well as injuries while trying to clean the drains of the national capital. The petition further claimed that 877 workers have already died while working in the past 5 years in the 4 zones of the SDMC alone. The Court while taking note of the submissions has directed the authorities to “ carry out inquiries regarding illness and injuries suffered by workers during work and submit a status report before us within 4 weeks” .