THE INTERVIEW
‘Without Mechanisation & Modern Sewage Systems, Swachh Bharat An Illusion’
Without mechanisation of sewer-cleaning, localised solutions for sewage treatment and modern sewer systems, the government’s Swachh Bharat (clean India) programme--for which Prime Minister Narendra Modi won a prestigious global award last month--is “an illusion”, Bezwada Wilson, national convener of the Safai Karmachari Andolan (sanitation workers movement) and 2016 Magsaysay Award winner told us. The Swachh Bharat Mission must begin with rehabilitating about 160,000 mostly Dalit women, who still remove excreta by hand from dry toilets, a practice supposedly outlawed 26 years ago. Those who clean sewers, he said, have never been counted but 817 have died since in 26 years to 2019.
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