Half of India's manual scavengers in Uttar Pradesh: Survey
Ahmedabad, June 27 : Uttar Pradesh has more than half the country's manual scavengers, an inhuman practice carried on for centuries, according to the latest survey published by the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
According to the manual scavengers survey 2018 report, released in June, the largest populated state in the country has 28,796 manual scavengers of the total 53,236 manual scavengers registered through the registration camps held for the survey.
However, these figures are only from 12 states, out of the 18 where the survey is being conducted. The figures of the rest six states are being sought.
Moreover, these figures obtained for the first phase of the survey are only from 121 select districts out of the 600 districts in the country. The survey found Madhya Pradesh with 8,016 registered manual scavengers and Rajasthan with 6,643.
The survey states that Gujarat has only 146 registered scavengers, a much smaller number given that far denigrated figure, where even the deaths of manhole workers are far higher. Men entering sewerage pipelines have to manually clean the clogging of sewer lines, a work equally inhumane as manual scavenging.
The survey was presented at a three-day national seminar with the theme 'Sociology of Sanitation' inspired by Sulabh International Social Services Organisation, a NGO working for upliftment of manual scavengers and the underprivileged classes, led by Padmashree awardee Bindeshwar Pathak.
Sulab has pioneered revolutionary work of setting up public toilets across the country and eradicating the inhumane practice of manually removing human excreta.
"Time will bring that change which is needed in the mindset of the people. The problem of human waste removal was a dire one and the solution lay in Mahatma Gandhi's thoughts, which was construction of infrastructure through raw materials obtained within five kilometre radius of the construction. We came out with the novel and unique idea of two-pit latrines, which abolished the need for manual removal," said Pathak, founder of Sulab International.
"There is no other better technology than this method and now even other countries are replicating it. The most advanced countries like the US have also showed interest in replicating the two-pit latrines in their country,"
Pathak was speaking at the seminar jointly organised by the M.K. University, Bhavnagar, the Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, and Sulabh International.
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K’taka HC judge whose controversial remarks triggered controversy expresses regret before open court
Bengaluru: Karnataka High Court judge, Justice V Srishananda, on Saturday expressed regret in open court after facing backlash over his controversial remarks in his recent court hearings, reported Bar and Bench.
Two purported video clips from Justice V Srishananda’s court hearing that show him making inappropriate comments went viral across social media platforms.
On Saturday, Justice Srishananda invited members of the Advocates Association, Bengaluru, and senior lawyers to his courtroom at 2:30 PM, where he read out a note expressing regret for inappropriate comments.
Quoting Advocates Association President Vivek Subba Reddy, Bar and Bench wrote, “He expressed regret for the comments and clarified that it was not his intention to offend any community or members of the Bar. He also requested the association to relay this message to all members of the Bar.”
Reddy further stated, “We also advised him to encourage young lawyers in the courtroom and refrain from making any irrelevant remarks during hearings.”
Another senior lawyer present during the session confirmed to the legal news portal that Justice Srishananda also addressed comments directed at a woman lawyer, who was seen in one of the videos being reprimanded by the judge. The judge Justice Srishananda clarified that his remarks were not intended to target her (woman lawyer) specifically, but rather pertained to the appellant she was representing. “He explained that his comment was meant to imply that the appellant seemed to know a lot about the other party,” said the lawyer.
In addition, Justice Srishananda assured those present that he would avoid making such comments in the future.
The controversy came to light on September 19, when a video clip from an August 28 Court hearing surfaced on social media, showing Justice Srishananda referring to a Muslim-majority sub-locality in Bengaluru’s Goripalya as "Pakistan." Hours later, another video from the same courtroom emerged, in which the judge was seen making a gender-insensitive remark.
Following outrage over the viral videos, a Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, along with Justices Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, Surya Kant, and Hrishikesh Roy, on September 20 took a suo motu cognizance and sought a report from the Karnataka High Court Registrar General in connection with the viral video.
