Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Friday demanded manual cleaning of sewerage must be stopped and those indulged in it be punished, besides seeking hike in the wages of sanitation workers at par with IAS.
Addressing his Lok Janshakti Party's National Executive here, he said making a human enter into a sewer to clean it in the age of technological advancement was criminal, a party release said.
"The inhuman practice of manual cleaning of sewerage must be stopped.
I demand this act must be declared illegal and persons and institutions indulging in it should be punished, " he said, as per the release.
Paswan said sanitation workers dispose the waste of others but their children go to the bed hungry.
"We need to change this system.
We are fighting for it.
If we want to give them respect, life with dignity, their wages should not made less than the IAS officials, " he told reporters later.
He also demanded minimum wages for anganwadis workers saying without it would not be possible to build healthy India.
Earlier people would feel ashamed of taking a broom in their hands but the situation has changed following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, he added.
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