Lawyer bats for sanitary workers at conference

The event was organised by the Madurai Law Awareness Coordination Team in association with the Sanitary Workers Association at Madurai. In the conference, the organisers demanded from the officials and the government that legal remedies available for sanitary workers be duly implemented and also to provide the workers with the said compensation. 

While talking to the media, one of the organisers, Sahaya Philomin Raj, a High Court lawyer, present at the conference, claimed that the sanitary workers are a key to the well-being of the society. They are entrusted with the job of protecting the life of the people just like Army men who do it on the borders. 

“The government has been implementing various welfare measures and providing financial assistance to families of the Army men, but has been refusing to provide even the sanctioned compensation to the sanitary workers. According to law, Rs 10 lakh compensation is paid to the family of any deceased sanitary worker involved in manual scavenging, however, the workers fail to reap these benefits,” Raj added. 

The high court lawyer also said, “Sanitary workers are those group of people who hardly think or care about personal time. They hardly even take holidays and ironically enough, half the people of the society are unaware of who cleans the streets everyday and what problems they face.” 

“A section of the people in society do not want the sanitary workers to know of their legal rights and want them to remain illiterates as long as it suits their purpose. However, there are a lot of schemes that have been devised for the sanitary workers and it is high time they are made aware of the same,” added Raj.