Most of us would have seen scavengers manually removing human waste from railway tracks, despite Manual Scavenging being declared illegal way back in 1993 vide Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act 1993.
The Railway board either denied of hiring manual scavengers anymore or claimed that those cleaning the tracks at railway stations do not come under the Act.
In the wake of a PIL filed by the Safai Karamchari Andolan, a federation of state-level organizations of manual scavengers across the country, Delhi HC asked Railway board to install bio-toilets in the trains and rehabilitate the scavengers engaged in the menial jobs.
The bench also expressed its displeasure over delay in their introduction and directed railway authorities to also provide protective gears to the people engaged in cleaning toilets in railway coaches.
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