New Delhi: ‘We need a sensitive, a poetic word for Manual Scavengers, something like ‘divyaang’. A word that gives the dignity of these people,’ said Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan during 12-Hour NDTV-Dettol Banega Swachh India campaign in a bid to spread awareness about this inhuman practice that persists despite being against the law and the need to restore dignity and rehabilitate the people still engaged in this menial job.
Mr Bachchan then took to his blog asking for suggestions to describe those engaged in this job. The blog published on October 4, took the discussion that started during the Banega Swachh India Cleanathon further, as Mr Bachchan wrote,
One of the issues that had come up recently was disturbing..the Manual scavengers that was talked of during the NDTV Cleanathon@5. Last night the issue of the ‘manual scavenger’ was most disheartening and hurtful to hear. They are given the most unbearable workstations of cleaning up the sewers of the city, sending them down the drains containing the sewage and the filth of the city without as much as a basic equipment to execute their job. They face disease, dangerous gases and have perished in numbers..not just that, their living conditions do not give them the dignity of their labour, nor are they accepted in society as one of us; caste distinctions, alienation and health issues, not getting opportunity to work and jobs, associating with them as a society.. are all issues that these poor men had to go through.
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He further wrote about his decision to contribute 50 machines during the Cleanathon to help the sanitation workers’ job and also not require them to physically step into the sewers.
On finding out that there were machines available to clean-up sewers, it was of immense wonder why the machine were not being used..So on finding out the costs of each machine, knowing where personnel could be trained to teach them how to use them and to prevent the workers from manually going down sewers was the debate, I made a contribution of 50 such machines to be bought and put to use immediately so we can save lives and save the indignity of these workers.
NDTV – Dettol Banega Swachh India campaign lends support to the Government of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). Helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan, the campaign aims to spread awareness about hygiene and sanitation, the importance of building toilets and making India open defecation free (ODF) by October 2019, a target set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he launched Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in 2014. Over the years, the campaign has widened its scope to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and menstrual hygiene. The campaign has also focused extensively on marine pollution, clean Ganga Project and rejuvenation of Yamuna, two of India’s major river bodies.