Manual scavenging resurfaces in Karnataka, official visits Tumakuru village

The men, who were clearing out night soil from the latrine pit with their bare hands, carried it on buckets and dumped it at a distant place.
A video grab of a man cleaning a latrine pit at Kalluru in Gubbi taluk
A video grab of a man cleaning a latrine pit at Kalluru in Gubbi taluk

TUMAKURU: The ban notwithstanding, manual scavenging was reported at Kalluru village in Gubbi taluk.

The incident occurred on Saturday and came to light on Monday when a video of the same was shared on social media. In the video, five people, including Manjunatha, Mahadeva, Narasimhaiah and Mahadeva, all Dalits, and Rajanna from backward Tigala community, were found cleaning the latrine pit of one Ranganatha, a weaver.

The men, who were clearing out night soil from the latrine pit with their bare hands, carried it on buckets and dumped it at a distant place. Taluk social welfare officer Ramanna visited the spot on Tuesday and took stock of the issue. He was told by locals that manual scavenging is common at Kalluru which is gram panchayat headquarters with over 1,000 households.

“Of them, 200 are Dalits and only 30 per cent of them have toilets in their houses. Whereas 60 per cent caste Hindus have toilets and they depend on Dalits — about 20 involved in manual scavenging for a decade — to clean their latrine pits, sources said.

“Most of the Dalits have no land and are jobless. They do menial jobs,” observed Ravikumar, a farmer. “Every month, they clean one or the other latrine pit in the village as it is ‘lucrative’ for them. Besides `500 per head, liquor will also be offered,” he pointed out.

Ramanna said he will file a report to the district social welfare officer, seeking action against the guilty who involved the men in manual scavenging.

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