The Logical Indian Crew

Thane: NGO Protests Against Municipal Corporation For Engaging Manual Scavengers

Social organisation, MUSE, conducted a protest walk towards Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) headquarters at Panchpakhadi for employing manual scavengers in Thane city.

Maharashtra-based Muse Foundation took to the roads against Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) for employing manual scavengers in the city. Moreover, the NGO also put forth a set of demands for the benefit of manual scavengers and their families while demanding machines and jet pumps as a suitable alternative to asking people to clean sewers with bare hands. Several citizens with their faces painted black came out with placards and posters demanding compensation, rehabilitation of victims' families and putting an end to the inhumane practice of Manual Scavenging.

Punishment For Contractors, Private Players

In an Instagram post, the Muse Foundation put forth a set of demands from the Municipal Corporation. The protestors met the Thane collector and demanded the rehabilitation of the rehabilitation and compensation of all the families of the eight workers involved in the Pride Presidency Luxuria; Thane incident case occurred on May 9 2019, within one month. A similar compensation was demanded in the Mumbra case, which happened recently on March 29, 2022. The protestors also demanded the punishment of all the contractors and private players involved in the two cases.

Demand For A Centralized Helpline

A demand for setting up a survey committee was raised, and the Corporation was asked to pay for all the identified people as manual scavengers. Moreover, the protestors also asked the Corporation to carry out District-level awareness campaigns to spread the information about manual scavenging and create a centralized helpline to ensure that citizens can complain of any incident of manual scavenging in their neighbourhoods. Moreover, the protestors demanded that sophisticated machines and jet pumps must be used as an alternative method to manual scavenging.

Thane has been touted to be a smart city by several politicians and bureaucrats. However, the NGO wrote on its social media, "nothing smart is being done to eliminate one of the grossest human rights violations".

Also Read: Changemakers: How Two Young Girls Are Fighting Against Societal Stereotypes To Pursue Their Dreams?

Contributors Suggest Correction
Writer : Ratika Rana
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Editor : Snehadri Sarkar
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Creatives : Ratika Rana

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