Sanitation Workers Delhi News Report

http://www.samaylive.com/news/most-sanitation-workers-unaware-of-their-rights-survey/642640.html

Most sanitation workers unaware of their rights: survey
Published: Mon, 03 Aug 2009 at 00:54 IST

New Delhi, Aug 2 A huge majority of the sanitation workers in the national capital are unaware of existence of the laws to stop manual scavenging and prevent atrocities on Scheduled Castes, a latest survey has showed.

The study, conducted by a team of city based think tank Indian Social Institute, found that 97 per cent of the 'safaikaramcharies' in Delhi do not know about the 1993 Act that prohibits employment of manual scavengers.

It also revealed that though nearly all of the over50,000 sanitation workers belong to the Dalit community, 88per cent of them were unaware of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, which was enacted way back in 1989.

The lack of awareness about these crucial legislations make the sanitation workers open to exploitation, social activists and experts said. With more and more such workers coming under the contracting system, they were also facing a number of other problems.

"Recently, there were reports that 45,000 safai karamcharies were over-reported by contractors to swindle the MCD...but safai karamcharies are also subjected to the whims of contractors. Many a times, they pay less and sometimes defer payments for months together," Ramesh Nayak, ISI project coordinator and leader of study team, said.