Victimization of Safai Karmachi in jammu and Kashmir,
| 11-Sep-2018 |
Safai Karmachari or Balmikies are one of the worst affected class of people living in the State of Jammu and Kashmir and are suffering blatant violation of human rights. Here I am referring about those Safai Karmachari’s or Sweepers who settled in the State of Jammu and Kashmir in the year 1957 at the request of erstwhile Government of Jammu and Kashmir. In the year 1957 a large number of people working as Safai Karmachari in the State of Jammu and Kashmir went on strike for considerably long period of time resulting into the piling up of the garbage all around the cities. When things started going out of hands a cabinet decision was taken by the then State Government headed by Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad to call some 200 families from the adjacent state of Punjab, mostly residing in Gurdaspur and………. with the promise that they will be given employment protection in the State of Jammu and Kashmir and all other necessary facilities needed for the dignified way of living. In the name of employment protection a small change was made in the legal regime of the State of Jammu and Kashmir by virtue of which, an exception was created in Regulation 35 B of the Jammu & Kashmir Civil Service Regulation, from producing State Subject Certificate for becoming Sweeper. The effect of this provision is that anyone can become Sweeper in the State of Jammu and Kashmir even if they don’t possess State Subject Certificate/ Permanent Resident Certificate including those Safai Karmachari who were called in the State of Jammu and Kashmir during 1957. Only relief that was given to the sweepers was the relaxation from the producing Permanent Resident Certificate for the post of Sweeper or chowkidars, leaving the condition of Permanent Resident Certificate in all other facets of life governed by respective Statute or Rules of Regulations formulated by State Legislature or Government remained the same. For any other Service and for obtaining admission in professional educational institutions under the State Government as prevalent in the State of Jammu and Kashmir remain the same. In absence of Permanent Resident Certificate these extremely poor and underprivileged section of society continue to struggle for their dignified sustenance in the State of Jammu and Kashmir as new generation of those people who came in the year 1957 wants to move forward in life to seek new avenues of life which is blocked by the condition of Permanent Resident Certificate.
Today any member from the families of sweepers cannot opt for any State Government run institution for professional education, he cannot seek employment other than the job of sweeper or chowkidar, cannot register himself to do business in the State, he cannot exercise his constitutional right of voting in the local elections including the election of member of legislative Assembly, he himself cannot file his nomination to contest election, cannot ripe any benefits provided to the weaker section of society including reservation in State services, any healthcare facility, scholarship, etc.
Even if someone is qualified to seek promotion from the post of Sweeper he is not allowed to do so under the perplexing legal regime existing in the State of Jammu and Kashmir. When Safai karmacharis were called to deal with an emergency situation of sanitation in the State they were provided with a small chunk of land to live in and to settle down with the promise that the land allotted will be regularized. Today almost 60 years have passed but land allotted to them have not been regularized so far. They are forced to live in a miserable condition, as third generation of those who came in the State is living in the same area of land which was provided to them around 1957. Even though it is evident before the State machineries that the sizes and volume of the families have increased many fold since then, no effort on the part of successive State Governments have been made to ameliorate the deplorable condition of Safai Karmachari. Almost six decades have passed since they were invited in the State to serve the needs of the people living in the state but in return they are provided with only the unfulfilled promises. Constitution of India advocates and directs the Government to uplift the conditions of the weaker sections of the society and to make special provisions to improve their socio- economic conditions. But unfortunately in the State of Jammu and Kashmir instead of empowering Sweepers they have been deprived of their basic rights needed to live a dignified life.
One of the main cause of the suffering of the Sweepers is section 6, 7, 8 and 9 of the Constitution of the Jammu and Kashmir which lays down the conditions as to who constitute permanent residents in the State of Jammu and Kashmir and empowers the State government or State legislature to formulate laws in their favour in complete disregard to those who are living in the state for past several decades but do not fulfill the inequitable criteria set to become Permanent resident in the State under section 6 of the constitution of the jammu and Kashmir. Now the question emerge as to how such bigoted provision can sustain which directly violate the constitutional guarantees or promises made to its citizen in the form of fundamental rights. Answer to this question lies in Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) order, 1954, which is formulated in alleged exercise of power under Article 370 (1) (d) of the Constitution. Constitutional Order of 1954 extended a new provision to the state of Jammu and Kashmir which is not provided anywhere in the constitution in the form of Article 35A. It is the Article 35A, which gives protection to all the discriminatory provisions formulated in the State of Jammu and Kashmir defining or favoring the Permanent Residents in the State of Jammu and Kashmir. Now even after the 70 years of Independence and 68 years of India becoming a republic it’s high time that a serious determined effort is made to eradicate such a discriminatory, inhumane legal regime set in place affecting thousands of lives in the State.