Na­tional Safai Karam­chari Com­mis­sion -an In­dian statu­tory body formed to mon­i­tor the sta­tus and sit­u­a­tion of peo­ple en­gaged in clean­ing roads, clear­ing waste, man­ual scav­eng­ing and the like, has taken cud­gels on be­half of the poor Shil­long Sikhs who are fac­ing the ire of the gov­ern­ment of Megha­laya de­ter­mined to re­lo­cate them from their 200-year-old habi­tat.  In a clear note, Com­mis­sion mem­ber Ja­gadish Hire­mani, dur­ing his re­cent visit has cat­e­gor­i­cally stated that “these peo­ple have served Megha­laya for the last two hun­dred years, there is no need to re­lo­cate them in any way.”

SAFAI KARAM­CHARIS -clean­ers and jan­i­tors, em­ployed by the gov­ern­ment, in the Har­i­jan Colony are not to be re­lo­cated –Inko yaha se nahi nikalna hai. They have served the peo­ple and the state for the last 200 years. –In­honone pichle do sau saal se ya­han sewa ki hai, kyun nikalna hai inko?

These words of Na­tional Com­mis­sion for Safai Karam­chari Com­mis­sion Mem­ber Ja­gadish Hire­mani, dur­ing his visit to Shil­long a few days ago, have pro­vided much-needed suc­cour and re­lief to the res­i­dents of Har­i­jan Colony aka Sweep­ers Colony in the Bara Bazar area of Shil­long. On the other hand, it has rat­tled the state gov­ern­ment, whose Deputy Chief Min­is­ter Pre­stone Tyn­song has gone on record to say that com­mis­sions can ad­vise what­ever but ul­ti­mately it is the state gov­ern­ment of Megha­laya which will de­cide the sta­tus of these Safai Karam­charis.

The NCSK mem­ber vis­ited the Har­i­jan Colony and in­ter­acted with res­i­dents of the colony and lis­tened to their woes and prob­lems. The Har­i­jan Pan­chayat Com­mit­tee sub­mit­ted a de­tailed mem­o­ran­dum of de­mands to the vis­it­ing mem­ber of the Com­mis­sion.

On his re­turn from the colony, speak­ing ex­clu­sively to The World Sikh News, on the phone line from Shil­long, Ja­gadish Hire­mani said, “I have vis­ited the area and stud­ied the doc­u­ments pro­vided to me by the res­i­dents of the Har­i­jan Colony as well as by the gov­ern­ment. I have un­der­stood their case thor­oughly. Upon re­turn to Delhi, I will pre­pare a com­pre­hen­sive re­port and the Na­tional Com­mis­sion for Safai Karam­charis will rec­om­mend to the State of Megha­laya that the Safai Karam­charis in the Har­i­jan Colony should not be re­lo­cated.”

SAFAI KARAM­CHARIS -clean­ers and jan­i­tors, in the Har­i­jan Colony are not to be re­lo­cated –Inko yaha se nahi nikalna hai. They have served the peo­ple and the state for the last 200 years. –In­honone pichle do sau saal se ya­han sewa ki hai, kyun nikalna hai inko?

Ja­gadish Hire­mani, Mem­ber, Na­tional Com­mis­sion for Safai Karam­charis

“They have only a small chunk of land, why should the gov­ern­ment re­lo­cate them? They have done man­ual scav­eng­ing for two cen­turies, it is in­hu­man to forcibly re­lo­cate them,” he added.

Dur­ing his visit on 27 June, the Har­i­jan Colony res­i­dents sought the in­ter­ven­tion of the Na­tional Safai Karam­chari Mis­sion and urged the mem­ber “to un­der­stand the dy­nam­ics of the is­sue of our habi­tat which is un­der an il­le­gal chal­lenge by the gov­ern­ment of Megha­laya, es­pe­cially through the Shil­long Mu­nic­i­pal Board and the one-sided High-level com­mit­tee formed by the Megha­laya gov­ern­ment a year ago.”

Wel­com­ing Ja­gadish Hire­mani to the un­der-con­struc­tion Gur­d­wara in the colony, City Gur­d­wara Par­band­hak Com­mit­tee Pres­i­dent Gur­jit Singh said, “His­tory stands tes­ti­mony to the hard work and con­tri­bu­tion of the poor­est Mazhabi Sikhs in the Pun­jabi lane of Shil­long and his­tory will not for­give the gov­ern­ment of Megha­laya if they forcibly re­lo­cate the Sikhs there. His­tory is also over­look­ing the role of stu­dent or­gan­i­sa­tions with a di­vi­sive agenda. His­tory will also record the role of Gov­ern­ment Com­mis­sions and min­istries in un­do­ing in­jus­tice to the be­lea­guered Shil­long Sikhs.”

Nar­rat­ing their woes, Gur­jit Singh added that the “Poor Safai Karam­charis serv­ing through hard labour do­ing what the rest of the so­ci­ety calls ‘dirty jobs’ are be­ing made soft tar­gets and many oth­ers around the area are go­ing scot-free -un­touched and un­scathed. No ben­e­fits for the so­cial wel­fare of our peo­ple as man­dated un­der var­i­ous laws and gov­ern­ment schemes has been given to Safai Karam­charis of the area, in ut­ter vi­o­la­tion of the laws of the land.”

Ja­gadish Hire­mani re­as­sured the Har­i­jan Colony res­i­dents that jus­tice will be done to them and that the Com­mis­sion would en­dorse their non-re­lo­ca­tion from their habi­tat.

Ad­dress­ing the me­dia, Ja­gadish Hire­mani said, “This prob­lem is not unique to Megha­laya alone. There are sim­i­lar prob­lems in other states too. Kar­nataka, Ma­ha­rash­tra, Tamil Nadu also faced a sim­i­lar predica­ment, but they had re­solved the is­sue am­i­ca­bly.”

He went to nar­rate how as per an or­der of the Supreme Court of In­dia in 1972, man­ual scav­engers in the coun­try must be re­ha­bil­i­tated by giv­ing them all fa­cil­i­ties of ed­u­ca­tion, hous­ing and health. He said, “the is­sues of the Har­i­jan Colony could have been re­solved then if the state gov­ern­ment had fol­lowed that or­der.

When a mem­ber of the press corps said that the Har­i­jan Colony area is a big slum and there is no need for clear­ance for clean­li­ness and san­i­ta­tion, the NCSK mem­ber re­torted “If the lo­cal bod­ies and the state gov­ern­ment make a plan, the com­mis­sion is ready to sanc­tion the amount from the Prime Min­is­ter hous­ing scheme, whereby it will no longer be a slum. Af­ter so many decades, peo­ple’s sen­ti­ments are at­tached to the place.”

In a ma­jor re­lief to more than 250 house­holds of the Sikh Safai Karam­charis and scores of other Safai Karam­charis in Megha­laya, Ja­gadish Hire­mani di­rected the gov­ern­ment of Megha­laya to pay Rs. 9000 per month, at the rate of Rs. 300 per month per day as per the min­i­mum wage fixed by the gov­ern­ment of Megha­laya from 1 July 2019 on­wards, with ar­rears of the last six months.

He pointed out to the me­dia that there are places of wor­ship there. There is a school. All re­li­gious and so­cial in­sti­tu­tions have been given Pat­tas. What will you do about them?

In a ma­jor re­lief to more than 250 house­holds of the Sikh Safai Karam­charis and scores of other Safai Karam­charis in Megha­laya, Ja­gadish Hire­mani di­rected the gov­ern­ment of Megha­laya to pay Rs. 9000 per month, at the rate of Rs. 300 per month per day as per the min­i­mum wage fixed by the gov­ern­ment of Megha­laya from 1 July 2019 on­wards, with ar­rears of the last six months.  It may be men­tioned that till re­cently, these em­ploy­ees were get­ting only Rs. 3200 per month as salary and they con­tinue to be ‘tem­po­rary em­ploy­ees’ for the last so many years. Ja­gadish Hire­mani also di­rected the ad­min­is­tra­tive of­fi­cials to make them per­ma­nent em­ploy­ees to which the state au­thor­i­ties have agreed to do in a phased man­ner.

He also or­dered a slew of other ben­e­fits in­clud­ing pro­vi­sion of health and safety gad­gets on a reg­u­lar ba­sis as well as jobs to a fam­ily mem­ber when a serv­ing Safai Karam­chari passes away or re­tires.

Speak­ing with The World Sikh News, Ja­gadish Hire­mani said, “I have clearly told all de­part­ments that till a fi­nal de­ci­sion is made in the mat­ter of the Har­i­jan Colony, all fa­cil­i­ties and ben­e­fits must be con­tin­u­ously given to them as per law. Their shops which have been closed un­der pres­sure must be opened and no de­part­ment must ha­rass them.”

Ja­gadish Hire­mani ac­knowl­edged that the res­i­dents of the Har­i­jan Colony have served the State for more than 200 years and there is enough doc­u­men­ta­tion to prove that the tra­di­tional king of the trib­als- Syiem of Myl­liem, prior to the for­ma­tion of the state of Megha­laya had given them the land.

Gur­jit Singh posed this ques­tion dur­ing his in­ter­ac­tion with the mem­ber of NCSK: “Why does the gov­ern­ment of Megha­laya, the Khasi Stu­dents Union and the un­der­ground bod­ies want the mere 2.5 acres of land where a few thou­sand poor res­i­dents live?”

“Why does the gov­ern­ment of Megha­laya, the Khasi Stu­dents Union and the un­der­ground bod­ies want the mere 2.5 acres of land where a few thou­sand poor res­i­dents live?”

Gur­jit Singh, Sec­re­tary, Har­i­jan Pan­chayat Com­mit­tee

The Mem­o­ran­dum sub­mit­ted by the Har­i­jan Pan­chayat Com­mit­tee out­lined the gen­e­sis of the is­sue by say­ing that, “With the de­vel­op­ment of Shil­long city and its vicin­ity, the Sweep­ers Colony area now hap­pens to be in the heart of the city with the value of land is sky-rock­et­ing. So, the gov­ern­ment and other un­scrupu­lous el­e­ments want to com­mer­cially de­velop this place by up­root­ing the poor Sikhs un­der one pre­text or the other.  The poor­est of the poor are be­ing made scape­goats in the name of slum clear­ance and clear­ing con­ges­tion. A com­plete re­view will see that the il­le­gal and un­law­ful in­ter­ven­tion of the Shil­long Mu­nic­i­pal Board has led to the open­ing a Petrol sta­tion in the area and il­le­gal al­lot­ment of shops is ac­tu­ally the sole rea­son for the con­ges­tion and il­le­gal growth. The poor­est are still liv­ing a measly life of bare ex­is­tence. There are other shops and houses in the area, which are not be­ing touched. We are be­ing grossly dis­crim­i­nated.”

“Our fore­fa­thers were in­vited by the then British In­dian army and they made the Bara Bazar area their home 200 years ago. Since then Shil­long is our home. Scav­eng­ing and clean­ing the streets and can­ton­ment area of Shil­long, these poor­est of the poor did these tasks for a liv­ing and many still con­tinue to do so. None of the lo­cal pop­u­la­tion was will­ing to do the ‘dirty job’, he added.

“In 1863, the tra­di­tional King of the area -Syiem of Myl­liem al­lot­ted the land to us and this has been con­firmed in a 2008 de­c­la­ra­tion given by the then King to the Har­i­jan Pan­chayat Com­mit­tee. Due to the il­le­gal in­ter­ven­tion by the Shil­long Mu­nic­i­pal Board, we have not ob­tained Pat­tas for the whole area, but we do have Pat­tas from the tra­di­tional King for a Gur­d­wara, a Valmiki Mandir, a Durga Mata Mandir and the Guru Nanak Up­per Pri­mary School.”

De­spite the as­sur­ance of the Na­tional Com­mis­sion for Safai Karam­charis, it would be a sad day for hu­man rights, so­cial rights, right to hous­ing and democ­racy if an un­grate­ful Megha­laya gov­ern­ment forcibly tries to evict the poor Sikhs.

“Since 1951, the res­i­dents of this area have ex­er­cised their right to fran­chise with their ad­dresses of this area.”

The Mem­ber of the Com­mis­sion, Ja­gadish Hire­mani, dur­ing the press meet stated that the HLC should not have is­sued no­tices to the set­tlers of the colony when the mat­ter is pend­ing be­fore the court.

The NCSK mem­ber chided the gov­ern­ment of Megha­laya for hav­ing the low­est min­i­mum daily wage of Rs. 300 in the coun­try whereas the cen­tral gov­ern­men­t’s min­i­mum wage is Rs. 605.

“All the archival records of the last two cen­turies of var­i­ous de­part­ments of Shil­long and the Megha­laya gov­ern­ment of­fi­cially call this place Sweep­ers Colony.  This alone is sub­stan­tial proof of our 200-year old res­i­dence.”

Putting it very sim­ply to drive the point home, res­i­dents of the Har­i­jan Colony in their mem­o­ran­dum have stated that, “all the archival records of the last two cen­turies of var­i­ous de­part­ments of Shil­long and the Megha­laya gov­ern­ment of­fi­cially call this place Sweep­ers Colony.  This alone is sub­stan­tial proof of our 200-year old res­i­dence.”

De­spite the as­sur­ance of the Na­tional Com­mis­sion for Safai Karam­charis, it would be a sad day for hu­man rights, so­cial rights, right to hous­ing and democ­racy, if an un­grate­ful Megha­laya gov­ern­ment forcibly tries to evict the poor Sikhs who have re­mark­ably served the city for two cen­turies. It would be a trav­esty of jus­tice.

With in­puts from Ro­hit Singh in Shil­long