“No Manual Scavenging”
The SafaiKaramchariAndolan has demanded that the Prime Minister bring out a white paper on the work done by the government for manual scavengers in the last 10 years and release a special package for the liberation and rehabilitation of manual scavengers.

On July 24, while responding to unstarred questions raised by TMC MP Saket Gokhale in the Rajya Sabha on the number of total manual scavenging incidents Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale replied that ‘there is no report of manual scavenging in the country in the last five years’ and that out of the total 6,256 cases uploaded on the mobile app from 114 districts, all cases were verified and none was found credible!

Thus, the Union Minister turned a blind eye to the increasing deaths of SafaiKarmacharis due to hazardous and manual cleaning of safety tanks, sewers, etc. This is an attempt by the Union Government to hide the data related to deaths due to manual scavenging to escape the responsibility of rehabilitation of the dependents of the deceased workers.

Recently in May, Uttar Pradesh witnessed 8 deaths in a short period of 10 days due to manual scavenging. On May 2, Shrobhan Yadav, 57, and his son Sushil Yadav, 30, died while checking a sewer line without safety equipment in Lucknow’sWazirGanj area. On May 3, two daily wage labourers, KokanMandal, 40, and NuniMandal, 36, died while cleaning the septic tank of a private residence in Noida Sector 26. On May 9, four people died from inhaling toxic gases while cleaning the septic tank of a house in Mughalsarai, Chandauli. Three of the victims, Vinod Rawat, 35, Kundan, 42, and Loha, 23, were informal sanitation workers, while the fourth victim was the house owner’s son, who died while trying to save the workers. Colin Gonsalves, senior Supreme Court advocate and founder of Human Rights Law Network, remarked, “It is appalling that workers are forced to get down into sewer lines without any protocol, machine or oxygen gear to clean sewer lines.

Centre says 400 people died due to manual scavenging in 2023.

It is urgent to hold the Union Government accountable for failing to protect the lives of these Dalit sanitation workers.
HN

Girls under Taliban
As Afghanistan’s rulers mark three years in power, the future of an entire generation of girls is ‘in jeopardy’.
Afghanistan’s Taliban government has “deliberately deprived” at least 1.4 million girls of their right to an education during its three years in power, according to the United Nations.

About 300,000 more girls are missing out on school since UNESCO last carried out a count in April 2023.

Taking into account the number of girls not going to school before the Taliban came to power in August 2021, the UN’s educational and cultural agency said 80 percent of Afghan school-age girls–a total of 2.5 million–are now being denied their right to an education.

“UNESCO is alarmed by the harmful consequences of this increasingly massive drop-out rate, which could lead to a rise in child labour and early marriage,” it said in a statement.

Afghanistan is the only country in the world to stop girls and women from attending secondary schools and universities.

Since the Taliban came to power, it has barred education for girls above sixth grade, arguing that it does not comply with its interpretation of Islam – although no other Muslim country prohibits girls from being educated.

UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay urged the international community to remain mobilised “to obtain the unconditional reopening of schools and universities to Afghan girls and women”.

The Taliban administration, which is not recognised by any other country, has imposed restrictions on women that the UN has described as “gender apartheid”.

The number of primary pupils has also fallen. Afghanistan had 5.7 million girls and boys in primary school in 2022, compared with 6.8 million in 2019, UNESCO said.

It blamed the drop on the authorities’ decision to ban female teachers from teaching boys, adding that parents also lacked incentives to send children to school.

Enrollment in higher education in equally concerning, it said, adding that the number of university students had decreased by 53 percent since 2021.
A Reader

MCC merges with CPI (ML)
The unification of Jharkhand’s two leading Left forces, CPI (ML) Liberation and Marxist Coordination Committee (MCC), was announced on 10 August 2024 in a press conference at Ranchi by CPIML Politburo member and MP Raja Ram Singh and MCC Executive President and Ex-MLA Arup Chatterjee. This will begin a new chapter in the anti-fascist resistance and struggles against crony capitalism in Jharkhand and will also be a decisive factor in the forthcoming Assembly elections in the state.

Earlier the CPI(ML) Polit Bureau in its meeting held on July 31- August 1, 2024, in New Delhi adopted the following resolution welcoming the unification: “The Polit Bureau of the Central Committee of CPI(ML) heartily welcomes the decision adopted by the Central Committee of Marxist Coordination of Jharkhand, founded by AK Roy and other leaders in 1972, to merge with the CPI(ML). Under the inspiring and iconic leadership of AK Roy, MCC played a key role in the Jharkhand movement and also in the struggle for nationalisation of India's coal industry. The unification of this significant trend of the Communist movement of Jharkhand with its glorious legacy of struggles against injustice and oppression with the CPI (ML) at today's critical juncture will energise the fighting forces of Jharkhand in intensifying the ongoing struggles against the fascist onslaught of the Modi government and the Sangh brigade and defending the rights and unity of the working class, Dalits and other Indigenous communities and deprived people of Jharkhand.
ML Update
(A CPI-ML Weekly News Magazine)

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Frontier
Vol 57, No. 10, Sep 1 - 7, 2024