A petition has been filed before the Supreme Court of India, seeking directions to States, their Municipal authorities and local self government authorities to ensure protection of rights of the sanitation workers who are also essential service providers amidst the nationwide lockdown in wake of COVID-19 outbreak.
The petition filed by Advocate Mehmood Pracha seeks for provision of protective gear to the sanitation workers within a period of 24 hours, and also for the testing of these workers and their immediate family within 48 hours.
The present petition has been filed on behalf of Harnam Singh, who is a social activist and also a former chairman of the Delhi Commission for Safai Karamcharis. The respondents in the current petition are the Union of India through the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development and through Ministry of Health and Family Planning along with the States and UT’s of India.
According to the petitioner, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development is responsible at national level to formulate policies, support programmes and coordinate activities of various Central Ministries , state governments and other nodal authorities. Even though Most of these functions have been delegated to Urban Local Bodies, the Ministry still has considerable influence on policy formulation and allocation of funds.
The Ministry of Health and Family Planning is responsible for formulating health policy and coordinating all efforts for combating public health concerns during the current pandemic.
The petitioner has stated that the Safai Karamcharis or the sanitation workers carry out essential service of keeping the cities clean, and they are not equipped with any COVID-19 protective gears to safeguard themselves while doing this work. They are not only poorly paid, but also live in densely populated areas.
The vulnerability of these workers to infection has also been recognised by WHO , which through its Interim Guidance has also mandated that sanitation workers must wear appropriate protective equipments like gloves, boots, masks, goggles, etc. while doing their duties.
The petition also points out that some sanitation workers have already been tested positive in Dharavi in Mumbai, making it imperative that steps are taken urgently in this regard.
The petitioner has also shown concern regarding the known tendency to ill treat persons belonging to Schedules Castes and has stated that if these people test positive then all the people belonging the Scheduled Castes will be blamed and vilified as deliberate spreaders of the Virus.
Its also submitted that The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers Act 2013 clarifies that cleaning of sewers or septic tanks without protective gear amounts to hazardous cleaning and any agency employing people for such hazardous cleaning is liable to be punished with imprisonment and fine.
The petitioner has prayed for directions to respondents to instruct all agencies undertaking sanitation facilities to not have these workers carry out any cleaning activity without being provided with COVID- 19 PPE. These workers should be provided with protective gears in 24 hours and be testes in 48 hours.
-India Legal Bureau