Trichy: The NGO, Evidence, has urged the state commission for women to take suo motu cognisance of the gang rape of a 22-year-old Dalit woman in Thanjavur and launch an inquiry into the crime. The NGO
said this on Tuesday after conducting a field inquiry in the village where the incident took place.
The executive director of the NGO, Kathir also appealed to the government to ensure that the trial is completed within three months and not to let the accused get bail.
He said that the government provides 12 lakh to the victims of gang rape cases. Instead of extending monetary help, the government should consider providing government jobs to the victim. That would be helpful for them to face their life without any fear, he stated.
The crime happened when the woman was on her way back to her house from the supermarket where she was working as a saleswoman. One of the accused offered to drop her at her house on his bike. As the woman went with him, he took her to a secluded place, where he was joined by three others and they gang-raped her.
Based on a complaint, a special police team arrested G Kodiyarasan, 28, Swaminathan, 30, Sugumaran, 26, Kannan, 25, all residents of Mettupatti near Vallam in Thanjavur, and booked them under various sections including Scheduled cast and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. Police also arrested three more people from the Mettupatti village on charges of threatening the victim to accept a compromise with the accused, police said.
In addition to SC, ST prevention Atrocities Act 1989, police should include the sections 3 (1), r, and 3 (1) (s) also, he added.
A Madurai-based voluntary group, Evidence, has said the Tamil Nadu State Commission for Women must suo motu take up a case of alleged gangrape reported in Thanjavur recently.
The woman was gangraped by three persons at a cashew farm. Earlier, two months ago, a woman was blackmailed and raped by multiple persons in Virudhunagar district. Both women, incidentally, belonged to the Scheduled Caste.
Acknowledging that in both cases the accused had been arrested, the organisation’s executive director A. Kathir in a press release here on Tuesday said the police should file the chargesheet within two months and trial in the cases. The cases must be fast-tracked and judgment delivered within three months. Till the verdict is delivered, the accused should not be granted bail, he added and sought a probe by the TNSCW as well.
According to him, instead of giving the ₹ 12 lakh compensation to rape survivors, it would be ideal to give them jobs as it would give them the much-needed self-confidence. He urged the police to book the accused under the provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act of 2015.
Night work in sewers was banned following the 2013 Supreme Court order. But the Madurai Corporation appears to have no conclusive information on under whose instructions the men entered the sewer at night.
It has been four days since Saravanakumar (30), Sivakumar (45) and Lakshman (32) died due to asphyxiation late at night inside a sewer junction in Madurai’s Mazhagantham. Though the First Information Report (FIR) mentions the contractor who summoned the workers in the night, Damodharan, a family member of one of the victims, has questioned why the local ward councillor’s husband, who allegedly called for the workers, was not named in the FIR. The Madurai Corporation, meanwhile, seems to have no answers on who ordered the men to go inside the sewer.
“It was at the insistence of the local ward councillor’s husband that the three of them were sent there at night. Now the Corporation is telling us that no work card was issued for that night. This seems to imply that they are saying it is the contractor’s fault,” alleges Damadhoran, Saravanakumar’s brother-in-law. “They were given no protective gear, no masks or gloves. They did not even have a light when they went into that well,” he further alleges.
In the FIR filed by the Junior Engineer of the Madurai Corporation, he mentions that Thavamani, the husband of the area ward councillor Amutha, called him around 10 pm to inform him about one death at the site. But the Corporation appears to have no conclusive information on under whose instructions the men entered the sewer at night. Night work in sewers was banned following the 2013 Supreme Court order. Yet, three men were sent into a sewer junction at around 9.30 pm.
Madurai Corporation Commissioner Dr KP Karthikeyan says, “There was no instruction from the Corporation to go there at night. Also, they were not there for sanitation work, they were there to remove a motor, which is allowed. The Standard Operating Procedure in such instances is for the motor to be removed with ropes. No one is supposed to enter the sewer.”
Karthikeyan also claims that the sewer junction should have been cleaned out before someone enters. “A pump is supposed to be used to suck out the dirty water and then clean water is pumped in to further flush out any filth.”
The Commissioner tells TNM that only a thorough investigation will reveal who is to blame. “Even with contract workers we ensure that SOPs are followed. We give regular training on safety measures.”
The deaths re-open questions various rights groups and activists have been asking for years. Why, despite a law banning night-time sanitation work, were the three of them sent down there? Why were they given no protective gear? Why have multiple governments, across party lines, done little to address the problem when sanitation work related deaths continue to be on the rise? Is simply paying compensation after the deaths—mere reactive measures—going to be all that the authorities do instead of preventing further tragedies?
If these are the SOPs, then it begs the question why none of the rules were followed? Damodharan alleges that even though the fire service personnel arrived quickly, the attempted rescue operation took about three hours, at which point the workers could only be brought out dead. “The water level was too high to retrieve the bodies. They would have needed pumps to take out the water first, but they did not arrive on time.”
Rs 5 lakh out of the Rs 10 lakh mandated compensation amount has been paid to the families. Damodharan says the money they have received has come from the contractor’s company. “The remaining money will be paid too, that’s not the problem. The problems that do exist, the authorities don’t seem to care enough to address,” says Kathir, founder of the Madurai-based rights organisation Evidence. “The sanitation department is grossly understaffed. For example, where there should be 3,000 workers employed, often there are only about half the number. Despite years of working, many remain contracted instead of being permanent employees. This saves the government money in terms of salaries. And it leaves the workers vulnerable since they are tied to the contractors instead of being government employees.”
Shalin Maria Lawrence, a writer and activist, adds, “Eighty percent of the manual scavenging labourers are contractual employees. So they don’t have proper income. The government needs to eliminate this business with contractors and directly employ the workers. Also, of course, give them mechanised equipment that they can use instead of directly doing the job.”
‘Tamil Nadu tops the country in sanitation worker deaths’
In a press statement, Evidence says that in the last 22 months alone, 21 sanitation work related deaths have occurred in Tamil Nadu. The state also has the highest number of deaths in the country.
Reacting to the Madurai incident, Shalin had pointed out on Twitter that the DMK had said it would implement its poll promise of ensuring manual scavenging is abolished as per the Supreme Court’s order. “An MLA did photoshoots with machines to clean up sewage. People were all praises and called it a ‘sixer’ from Mr. Stalin. Apart from mere theatrics, nothing was actually done to eliminate or reduce manual scavenging in the state.”
Shalin also tells TNM, “These deaths highlight state apathy. If the government puts its mind to it, they can eliminate manual scavenging. The 2013 Supreme Court order based on a case filed by the Safai Karamchari Andolan mandates the complete abolishment of this practice. If even after nearly nine years nothing has been done, what other reason than apathy can we assume?”
Shalin also alleges, “The state thrives on the caste system. The caste system says that one caste should always be working in sewers, and should always be dirty. The government is replicating that.” This is a factor that has been repeatedly pointed out by activists — caste plays a deadly role in the problem. Most sanitation workers hail from Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe backgrounds. According to the police statement, Saravankumar, the electrician, was from the Scheduled Caste Pallar community and Lakshmanan, the machine operator, from the Malai Vendan Scheduled Tribe. Sivakumar, who was hired to unblock the drain, was from the Kallar community, an OBC group that is part of the Thevar caste. While Saravanakumar had 11 years of experience, Lakshmanan had eight years on the job, and Sivakumar had been working for over a year. But none of them had been made permanent employees.
Kathir asks why a case has not been filed under the Prevention of Atrocities against Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes Act (PoA), given that two of the men are from SC and ST backgrounds. As of now, an FIR has been filed only under IPC 304 (causing death by negligence not amounting to culpable homicide). Vijay Anandan, the owner of a company named VGR, and two of its employees have been named in the FIR. Saravankumar’s family wants the ward councillor’s husband Thavamani to be added to the FIR. They are also demanding that the case be filed under the PoA. When TNM reached out to police officials, including the Commissioner of Police, Madurai, they declined to comment on the matter.
No tangible action seems to have been taken against those responsible for the deaths, says NGO
Twenty-two persons, mostly sanitary workers, had died of asphyxiation in different parts of Tamil Nadu in as many months, said A. Kathir, executive director of Evidence, an NGO, here on Friday.
Speaking to The Hindu , he said though deaths had been occurring at periodic intervals, the officials concerned and the government appeared to have not……