'Government has failed to rehabilitate manual scavengers'

Madurai: There have been allegations that authorities of Madurai and Virudhunagar districts have not taken steps to rehabilitate manual scavengers as per the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, even after they were given the list of those workers.
To bring public gaze on conservancy workers, the Madurai Legal Services Coordination Committee (MLSCC) has come up with a documentary film 'Thotti' and a book 'Prohibition of Manual Scavenging'.
Justice R Mahadevan of the Madurai bench of the Madras high court released the film and the book. Conservancy workers of the Madurai Corporation received copies of the books.
The judge stressed the need for societal intervention to eradicate manual scavenging and lauded the efforts of the MLSCC towards this end.
Though there is a ban on manual scavenging, the authorities who are supposed to prohibit the menace remain silent spectators, activists alleged.
The MLSCC set up in January last year conducted surveys in Madurai and Virudhunagar districts.
The committee's coordinator Sahaya Philomin Raj said that as per the Act, the authority should conduct a survey of manual scavengers. We located 152 manual scavengers in Virudhunagar and 94 in Madurai districts and submitted the details to the collectors in February and April this year. But no action was taken," he said.