Topic Of The Day:-“The scope of constitutional morality“
Abolition of untouchability in all its forms, including scavenging, remains an unrealised constitutional right
“The issue of the rights of sweepers and scavengers has never entered the mainstream legal consciousness in the country,” wrote Upendra Baxi in Law and Poverty: Critical Essays. “Nor have the Bar and the Bench, and the mushrooming legal aid and advice programmes shown any awareness of the exploitative conditions of work imposed upon the scavengers and sweepers under the employment of municipal corporations or related local bodies… [T]he exploitative conditions of work constitute governmental defiance of the law and the Constitution, which can be best summed up as a crucial component of overall governmental lawlessness in the country since Independence.”
Written in 1988, Prof. Baxi’s lines remain disconcertingly relevant today. We struggle against the caricaturing of this extremely stigmatising, violently exploitative and degrading form of forced labour by a government and civil society that showcases empty rhetoric and ceremony around “cleanliness”, while decimating an entire class of citizens through callous neglect with impunity.
There has been a steady rise in deaths of conservancy workers, and a steadier normalisation of the risks to life they bear on a daily basis. Why don’t sewer deaths bring the country to a grinding halt, as they should? Will a general strike of all conservancy workers across the country bring the country to its knees? Because then, it will not be a question of prime-time jingles on a clean India; the focus will shift on each of us to take the moral and physical responsibility of cleaning our own sewers and keeping ourselves free of the risk of toxic death.
MEANINGS AND WORDS
1) disconcertingly
Meaning : disturb the composure of; unsettle.
Synonyms : agitate , perplex
Antonyms : assist
Example : “the abrupt change of subject disconcerted her”
2) caricaturing
Meaning : make or give a caricature of.
Synonyms : mock , parody
Antonyms : applaud
Example : “he was famous enough to be caricatured by Private Eye“
3) decimating
Meaning : kill, destroy, or remove a large proportion of.
Synonyms : annihilate , slaughter
Antonyms : bear
Example : “the inhabitants of the country had been decimated”
4) callous
Meaning : showing or having an insensitive and cruel disregard for others.
Synonyms : careless , insensitive
Antonyms : concerned
Example : “his callous comments about the murder made me shiver”
5) impunity
Meaning : exemption from punishment or freedom from the injurious consequences of an action.
Synonyms : immunity , exemption
Antonyms : denial
Example : “the impunity enjoyed by military officers implicated in civilian killings”
6) conservancy
Meaning : a body concerned with the preservation of natural resources.
Synonyms : preservation , protection
Antonyms : certification
Example : “the Nature Conservancy”
