Manual scavenging has since centuries been designated to the most vulnerable caste in the social hierarchy of the caste system. The municipalities and government bodies responsible for sewer/septage cleaning systems continue to employ directly or indirectly the services of these marginalized communities, who are exploited and have no avenues for socio-economic development. Worst of all, the lives of these labourers are at stake due to the hazardous nature of the work, and lack of safety precautions or equipment provision. provision of safety precautions or equipment.
To address this issue in Karnataka, Thamate [1] developed a social innovation, the “Community-Based Monitoring Approach”, to organise the informal sanitation workers into an empowered collective network. Thamate is a community-based organization that was founded in 2006 to work with the most marginalized communities to eradicate the practice of manual scavenging and aid the comprehensive development of the community.
Key Thematic Areas:
Eradication of manual scavenging practice, including legal interventions
Improving education among families of Safai Karmacharis
Improving the health status of families of Safai Karmacharis
Implementation & Impact
To eradicate Manual Scavenging, Thamate is acting at three levels: preventive, rehabilitative and affirmative in Karnataka.
Firstly, since those who work as manual scavengers are often those employed as Safai Karmacharis by various Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) and Gram Panchayats (GPs), Thamate is actively focused on organizing the Safai Karmacharis by through the formation of Community-based Monitoring Groups (CBMG). The objective of the formation offorming these CBMGs is to build capacity among the workers themselves to be able to demand various entitlements related to labour, health, housing, drinking water, etc.
Thamate’s approach differs from other such efforts as it seeks to promote leadership among them via themselves instead of organizing workers through supervisors or maestris. The CBMGs identify critical workplace issues faced by members, address the day-to-day problems of the members by holding meetings with officials of ULBs independently without the need for topdown management and link up at the district and state level SK/MS organizations organisations to participate in the larger advocacy efforts. The CBMGs federate under the banner of Safai Karmachari Kavulu Samithi (SKSS), a state-level collective of Safai Karmachari unions (sanghas). The final goal is to work towards the economic and social security of the community so that there is no compulsion to work as manual scavengers.
Secondly, SKKS has been tracking and addressing the accounts of the death of persons in the process of being employed as Manual Scavengers such as deaths while entering sewers, maintenance holes, etc., since its formation in 2007[1] . On getting information about these incidents, the SKKS personnel conduct fact-finding exercises in collaboration with like-minded human rights and Dalit organizations. Recourse to legal interventions like registering complaints and filing FIRs, demanding the statutory compensation as per the Supreme Court Order (W.P. (CIVIL) NO. 583 OF 2003), etc. is taken to enforce the provisions of the 2013 Act and create deterrence against the practice of Manual Scavenging.
Lastly, the PEMSR Act 2013 provides for the identification of manual scavengers and their rehabilitation. The reluctance of state governments in state governments’ reluctance acknowledgingto acknowledge the practice of manual scavenging and hazardous cleaning within their jurisdiction has been the biggest hurdle in moving forward with its eradication. Thamate and SKKS have been working towards submittingsubmission of self-declaration forms with evidence of persons having been engaged in manual scavenging and pushing the ULBs for their identification and rehabilitation
Do we have access to the information that Thamate is capturing?
The activities of SKSS can be summed up as follows:
- Identification of those working or having worked as manual scavengers;
- Demolition/conversion of insanitary latrines;
- Rehabilitation of those identified as manual scavengers;
- Development of infrastructure to eliminate cleaning of manholes, septic tanks, soak pits, open drains, etc. and
- Justice to the families of those who have died while engaged in manual scavenging tasks.
Thamate’s other initiative, Bheemshale, are centres run by teachers from the community for providing educational support to children of the community studying in classes I-X. Because of the occupation of their parents, most children from the community lack a supportive and enabling environment at home for their education.
Figure 4 Bheemshale
With a volunteer base in Karnataka, Thamate works intensively in 8 slum areas and 42 villages. Over 5000 Dalit families in Tumkur, Madugiri & Pavagada have been reached through various interventions.
Describe Thamate.
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CEO/MD/Founder: Dr. K B Obalesha
Organization: Thamate Yeae of estbalishment: 2006
Contact: +91-9742586468 | obaleshkb@gmail.com
