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SKA’s activities and programmes can be broadly categorized as those
of (i) the grassroots movement, (ii) advocacy and lobbying, (iii)
legal interventions and (iv) media advocacy. The following presents
a brief outline of the range of activities undertaken by SKA over
the years:
Movement Activities:
1. District-wise meetings have been held in many states with
members of the safai karmachari community in order to engage the
community in discussion on the issue of manual scavenging, expose
its links to the caste system and identify the inherent problems
associated with this occupation. The aim is to raise awareness among
the community about the need to eradicate this degrading occupation
and that it is illegal, and to foster greater solidarity among the
community.
2. SKA has focused on building cadre for the grassroots
movement to eliminate manual scavenging and dry latrines. This has
involved identifying safai karmacharis willing to work for their
community and to end manual scavenging, and training them to take on
work as fulltime SKA activists. Trainings have centred on building
perspectives on the links between the caste system and manual
scavenging, human rights and SKA’s vision and mission, as well as
relevant legal provisions and interventions so far to protect and
promote the rights of safai karmacharis, developing skills of
community mobilisation, strategising interventions, leadership and
articulation skills, as well as networking and alliance building at
different levels.
3. In 2004, SKA took out a mass dry latrine demolition drive
across all the 25 districts in Andhra Pradesh, demolishing dry
latrines along the way and raising awareness among the wider
community about the social problem of manual scavenging.
4. In 2005, a youth conference (yuva mela) was held in Andhra
Pradesh in order to discuss and build a Dalit, gender-sensitive and
secular perspective among safai karmachari youth, as well as
identify and capacitate a dynamic second generation leadership
within SKA. This conference enabled SKA’s district teams in Andhra
Pradesh to evolve a Plan of Action with the community youth, which
saw youth come forward to form seventeen youth groups and six
divisional committees to monitor the demolition of dry latrines,
rehabilitation of workers and address issues of social exclusion and
discrimination.
5. In 2005 and 2006, gender sensitisation workshops were
conducted in nine states and union territories – Andhra Pradesh,
Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka,
Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan – to discuss about gender oppression,
occupational violence and domestic violence within the community and
the need for democratic families as part of the process of
liberation of the community. Emphasis also lay on education for girl
children, the need for women’s partnership and participation in SKA,
and awareness of the major laws in place to protect women’s rights.
The outcomes are a process of engaging safai karmachari women and
men in greater dialogue and action on gender issues, and recognising
the potential of women’s leadership in the movement. More
concretely, flowing from the Karnataka meeting, members decided to
launch a campaign against domestic violence within the community. In
Rajasthan, an agreement was reached to print more women active
representatives into decision-making fora and SKA campaign
activities.
6. In 2005, leading up to International Human Rights Day, a
campaign drive was launched in six districts of Andhra Pradesh
highlighting occupational violence as well as domestic violence
faced by safai karmachari women and girls. Over 1,000 persons from
the community took part in the 15-day campaign though public
meetings, rallies and distribution of pamphlets highlighting the
urgent need to fight violence against safai karmachari women and
girls, reaching out to different community groups such as women,
men, youth and dominant caste women. During this time, safai
karmachari women from the six districts also took the opportunity to
meet with government officials to demand the demolition of dry
latrines and their full rehabilitation into alternative livelihoods.
Women and some men also started to question their families for
making them continue manual scavenging work.
7. In 2005 in Aurangabad division, and Parel and Sion areas
of Mumbai in Maharashtra, SKA’s field visits enabled activists to
understand and analyse the situation of safai karmachari women,
particularly issues of sexual harassment in the workplace and
domestic violence. In the process, around 80 women were given
referrals and medical services in health camps.
8. In 2005, legal awareness workshops were conducted in
Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar with safai
karmachari community leaders and Dalit groups to familiarise them
with the provisions of the Employment of Manual Scavengers and
Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act 1993, Scheduled
Castes/ Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 and
fundamental rights and directive principles of state policy under
the Indian Constitution 1949. Workshop trainees were then organised
to collect evidence on the existence of manual scavenging and dry
latrines in their respective states to pressurise the local district
administration to rehabilitate persons engaged in manual scavenging,
as well as to support the PIL before the Supreme Court.
9. In 2005, safai karmachari activists from Delhi, Punjab and
Haryana participated in four-day cultural workshops, at which an
orientation on Dalit culture and training on creative expression was
imparted. As a result, street plays and songs on the conditions of
the safai karmacharis have been widely utilised in subsequent
community meetings and state consultations, as a means of building
awareness and enhancing community participation.
10. In September 2005, the Centre for Education and
Communication (CEC) and SKA held a joint one-day workshop on the
situation of Delhi sewage workers, raising issues of poor working
conditions, resultant health problems and issues of caste
discrimination and untouchability practised against the workers.
11. Pamphlets in regional languages have been prepared and
circulated among the wider Indian public in order to sensitise a
broad spectrum of Indian society about the need to eradicate manual
scavenging, while the Employment of Manual Scavengers and
Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act 1993 has been
translated into regional languages and distributed among the safai
karmachari community in order to raise awareness of the illegality
of manual scavenging.
12. In 2004, two special coaching classes were held in
Karnataka for safai karmachari children preparing for the 10th
standard public examination, which saw 18 of the 33 children pass
their exams and go on to higher secondary studies or technical
courses. Similarly, some community activists and coordinators
initiated special evening classes in Bombay municipal school that
ensure all 21 students who enrolled passed their 10th standard
public examinations in 2005.
13. At the start of the academic year in 2005, SKA took up an
education drive in parts of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan,
Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to link safai karmachari children workers
and dropouts to schools and encourage their enrolment. As a result,
around 200 children were enrolled in regular or bridge schools, and
children in three areas were given educational support by SKA
volunteers in terms of textbooks and uniforms.
14. In 2006, a computer training course was offered to 75
youth in Rawal Municipal camp in Maharashtra. In Parel and Sion, 230
children were offered special coaching classes run by community
youth and motivated teachers.
15. In 2006, SKA’s Andhra Pradesh Team undertook another
education drive for safai karmachari children, encouraging children
to enrol in schools with particular emphasis on safai karmachari
girl children, as well as lobbying state and district government
officials in seven districts to release scholarship funds meant for
safai karmachari children.
16. In 2005 and 2006, SKA’s Rajasthan Team has been actively
involved in the Right to Food and Employment Guarantee Act movements
in Rajasthan. The Team took up a survey of four districts,
identifying safai karmacharis without ration cards and unemployed
wage workers, in the process creating awareness among the two wider
movements on the safai karmachari situation for the first time.
17. In 2006, SKA’s Andhra Pradesh Team has helped over 2,000
safai karmacharis from five districts in Andhra Pradesh to submit
applications for rehabilitation from manual scavenging to government
officials as well as the SC Corporation. Around 500 safai
karmacharis have been able to access rehabilitation support from
government schemes as a result, while others had group and
individual loans approved.
18. In 2005, exposure visits were arranged between Rajasthan
and Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, Delhi and Haryana and Rajasthan,
Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab, in order
for SKA State Team members to widen their perspectives and learn
from each other’s situations. This also enabled the National Core
Team members to identify future leaders for SKA.
19. In 2006, around 125 community volunteers were given
orientation on issues of manual scavenging as forced labour, Dalit
human rights violations, legal provisions protecting safai
karmachari rights, and the lack of access to justice and development
for safai karmacharis. These volunteers then went out into the
communities to undertake a survey of the existence of manual
scavenging and dry latrines in selected districts in ten states and
union territories – Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and
Kashmir, Karnataka, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttaranchal and Uttar
Pradesh. The survey findings have not only fed into the ongoing PIL
before the Supreme Court, but have also enabled SKA activists to
pressurise respective state governments to correct their records and
declare the true extent of manual scavenging, begin demolition of
dry latrines and rehabilitation of persons found engaging in manual
scavenging. Already, demolition processes have commenced in Haryana,
Karnataka, Punjab and Rajasthan in some areas.
20. In 2006, SKA’s Andhra Pradesh Team has helped safai
karmachari women form self-help groups in order to access
alternative livelihood support from the State Government. For
instance, in Kurnool district ten women’s groups were able to access
loans to start alternative livelihoods, which relieved 220 women
from the work of manual scavenging.
21. SKA’s Andhra Pradesh Team also pursued West Godavari
district government officials in 2006 to initiate special vocational
training courses exclusively for safai karmachari girls. SKA
identified and motivated girls with creative interests, after which
a total of 320 girls in ten towns received skills training in
embroidery and sari painting. This brought in a decent income for
the girls, and rescued some girls from following their mothers into
manual scavenging. These results encouraged district officials and
they have requested SKA’s district team to continue their support.
22. SKA’s Andhra Pradesh Team has also undertaken a campaign
for the rights of contract workers , sharing data on safai
karmachari workers with labour rights groups, and lobbying with
political leaders and district government officials to improve
working conditions for the workers.
23. From 2006, SKA has commenced its campaign against manual
scavenging in Tamil Nadu, focusing on the three districts of
Nagapattinam, Pudukottai and Vellore. Survey data was collected on
the numbers of manual scavengers in each district, which was
utilised to lobby district government officials to support dignified
alternative livelihoods for safai karmachari families engaged in
this occupation. Moreover, November and December 2006 saw the SKA
State Team focus on violence against safai karmachari women and
girls in various fora and in eight workshops held with safai
karmachari women and men. As a result,
24. In May 2006, SKA took out a rally in Aland taluk,
Gulbarga district, Karnataka to demand workers’ compensation as per
the rules for one septic tank cleaner who was killed, and two others
who were injured, when they fell into the septic tank during
cleaning. Another rally was subsequently taken out in Gulbarga town
regarding the same issue, and a memorandum presented to the District
Commissioner.
25. Also in May 2006, a protest rally was taken out in Delhi
under the leadership of SKA in collaboration with other Dalit
organisations in the context of the anti-reservation drives and
medical students resorting to sweeping the streets near India gate
as a symbol of what they would be ‘reduced to’ if reservations were
granted to other backward classes (OBCs). SKA activists and Dalit
organisations saw this as a case of covert discrimination targeted
against Dalit safai karmacharis, reminding the public that sweeping
the streets is a demeaning kind of a job and it should remain
confined only to safai karmacharis. Condemning their discriminatory
actions, SKA immediately lodged a complaint against the medical
students under section 3(1)(x) SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act
1989. As a result of this rally, medical students apologised to
safai karmacharis for their actions.
26. National consultations have been organised periodically
by SKA with legal experts, safai karmachari activists and Dalit
organisations involved with or supporting the PIL before the Supreme
Court, to keep people informed about the progress of the PIL and to
strategise further stops to be taken by groups to monitor the steps
taken by state governments to comply with the Supreme Court orders.
These meetings have also helped develop collective action in terms
of collecting accurate data on the existence of manual scavenging
and dry latrines in respective states, as well as monitoring state
government progress in liberating and rehabilitating persons engaged
in manual scavenging.
27. Four SKA zonal coordinators from Andhra Pradesh and one
senior coordinator represented SKA at the Kolkata National Women’s
Conference in 2006, focusing attention on the situation of Dalit
safai karmachari women and helping women’s groups across the country
understand the occupational violence faced by our women
National Consultation
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