GADAG: Though manual scavenging in all forms has been banned in India, the practice continues. A man was found cleaning a toilet pit in Betageri town recently. The incident was reported on the evening of April 26 and he was found working in the pit of a Sulabh public toilet complex near Betageri railway underbridge.
The Manual Scavenging Act, 2013 has banned manual scavenging and many social activists have been creating awareness about it in Gadag district. People who found the man engaging in manual scavenging took photographs of it and asked him to stop the activity. The man, who was removing excreta by hand, disappeared when he saw people with cameras.
Ramesh Kolur, a social activist, has now lodged a complaint with the State Safai Karmachari Development Corporation in Bengaluru. Kolur told TNIE that such incidents are happening in Gadag, but local authorities are not talking about it. “Last week too, I have seen a worker entering a septic tank without any equipment. But the administration is not taking strict action,” he said.
An official from the Gadag-Betageri Municipal Council (GBMC) denied any involvement of the administration in the incident. “If we found that the person who was cleaning the pit is a GBMC employee, we will initiate action,” he said.