BBMP official engages pourakarmikas in manual scavenging, booked

BENGALURU: When the country was celebrating the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on October 2, a BBMP engineer allegedly got pourakarmikas to carry out manual scavenging works without providing them any safety equipment.
Police have booked a case against Shivakumar, an assistant engineer with the civic body in Yelachenahalli ward, following a complaint filed by Mutthaiah, a member of the safai karmachari committee with the social welfare department.
MN Ravikumar, assistant director of social welfare department, Bengaluru south filed the police case. Shivakumar has been booked under sections of Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act.
Mutthaiah said he was heading home after attending Gandhi Jayanti celebrations when he saw some pourakarmikas working inside manholes in Rajyotsava Nagar of Yelachenahalli ward without any safety gear.
“When I asked them, they said they are doing so on their mason’s orders. I immediately informed the social welfare department and asked the pourakarmikas to come out of the manholes,” Mutthaiah told TOI.
Muttahiah, who is responsible for addressing manual scavenging issues and atrocities against pourakarmikas in seven wards of BBMP, added: “The sewage line was operational for six months. When I saw them, they were at least 15 feet below and were struggling to breathe.”
“I took photographs of them working in the manholes and handed them over to social welfare department officials. I urged them to file a complaint and take action. This is the second time in two months that the administration has turned a blind eye towards manual scavenging. A month earlier, the same thing had happened in Jaraganahalli on Kanakapura Road. That time the BBMP officials were warned. They should have learnt a lesson, but did not,” he added.
Kumaraswamy Layout police said they have registered a case and will initiate probe soon. “The investigation officer is in Davanagere in connection with another case,” they added.
MR Venkatesh, chairman, Karnataka state commission for safai karmacharis, said he was not aware of the issue and would look into it.
Statistics from the Karnataka state commission for safai karmacharis show 68 people were killed while cleaning manholes, dry latrines and sewage pits across Karnataka in about a decade.
Randeep D, special commissioner (SWM) of BBMP said he was not aware of the incident, but will get a report and act accordingly. “It is not that officials are unaware of the issue. Ward-level health inspectors and assistant engineers direct pourakarmikas to take up manual scavenging works and deliberately turn a blind eye to it. And when such issues come to light, they wash their hands of, claiming they never commissioned the work,” said KB Obalesh, member of the state monitoring committee constituted by the social welfare department.