COMPENSATION TO DECEASED MANUAL SCAVENGER FAMILY
State to pay Rs. 10 lakh to mother of deceased sanitary worker According to the petitioner’s counsel R. Karunanithi, the sexagenarian’s son P. Arumugam, serving as a sanitary worker with Ramanathapuram Municipality, cleaned septic tanks in private buildings to earn an additional income. His wife was pregnant when he died. She gave birth to a baby girl after his death and left the child in petitioner’s custody before remarrying. When the aged petitioner was struggling to bring up the girl child, the Supreme Court on March 27, 2014 directed the Centre and State Governments to identify families of all those who died due to manual scavenging after the enactment of Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993 and pay them a compensation of Rs.10 lakh each. Hence, Valaiyakka sent representations to the government officials and then filed a writ petition seeking compensation. Justice R. Mahadevan disposed of her peti...