Manual scavenging continues in city despite government notices

Manual scavenging continues in city despite government notices

Mangalore Today News/ ITV

Mangalore, Nov 7, 2012 : Although manual scavenging is illegal, people from poor and Dalit families are still made to do these jobs. A man was asked to clean a manhole on Kankanady – Pumpwell road and he was at the job for nearly one hour.

Scavengers are given liquor in exchange for cleaning manholes. Local people, who saw the man at work in the manhole, said that he could not stand properly because he was in an intoxicated condition.

Last November, Kitta Koraga died while cleaning a toilet pit in Kinnigoli, after which the district administration issued an order making the use of machines to clean manholes mandatory in a bid to prevent manual scavenging. In spite of this order, people were made to manually clean manholes in Pandeshwar and Bunder.

The public complains that the district administration and the MCC only issues notices and does not take any action against the culprits.