End manual scavenging
One of the key mandates of PACS is to work for putting an end to caste based discrimination and exclusion. PACS provides support to the civil society organisations to work on the issue and also helps them strategize and broad base their work to address it more effectively.
The programme stands in complete solidarity to the cause of complete abolition of the inhuman practice of manual scavenging, a caste based practice of cleaning human excreta manually by individuals from some of the Dalit and Muslim communities in India who face untouchability, atrocities and ostrasization due to their involvement in this practice.
The Census of India 2011 has established that the inhuman practice of manual scavenging still continues in India. According to the census data there still are around 0.8 million dry latrines in the country where the ‘night soil’ or the human excreta is cleaned up by humans.73% of these are in rural areas where as 27% in urban areas.
Some of the civil society campaigns like Rashtriya Garima Abhiyan however claim that the number of houses having dry latrines in the country where manual scavenging persists, is as high as 2.6 million including those where the human excreta is flushed in open drains and where the excreta is reported to be cleaned up by animals.
NDTV, a pioneer in India’s news television recently aired a feature Manual Scavengers - The Dirty Picture Part1 and Manual Scavengers - The Dirty Picture Part 2 on the practice of manual scavenging.
Satyamev Jayate, a talk show by Indian actor Aamir Khan also screened an episode on the issue of untouchability on national television. To see the episode, click here
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