Rakib Altaf
SRINAGAR: A door-to-door campaign will soon be launched for safai waalas in the valley to make them aware of various welfare schemes for them.
Seven years ago the National Safai Karamcharis Finance and Development Corporation, Government of India, (NSKFDC) launched different schemes which include low-interest loans of one to eight lakh for self-employment and educational loans of 10 to 20 lakhs for higher studies.
In Jammu and Kashmir, NSKFDC funds are distributed by the J&K Schedule Caste, Schedule Tribe and Backward Classes Development Corporation Limited, a state government enterprise working for the upliftment of the downtrodden.
Its Division Manager for Kashmir, Arshad Butt says none of the sweepers in Kashmir valley has availed benefits under the education loan scheme.
He also says the other benefits have been availed only by 295 persons.
“We have held awareness camps in each and every district of the valley, we do it every year. But the numbers have not risen. So now we think a door-to-door campaign may help,” he says.
The campaign will be launched first in the summer capital Srinagar where sweepers live in colonies in Nowhatta, Tujgari Mohalla and Zukura areas, mostly in appalling conditions.
Whether the number of beneficiaries (295) is good or bad, one cannot figure out as there’s no data available on the total number of sweeper families in Kashmir.
In the valley, sweepers or Khakrobs – as the scavengers are called locally – belonged to traditional sweeper communities. Sons would follow their fathers and take to the job of sweeping.
But now many people, who were not traditional sweepers, are joining the profession due to growing unemployment in the state, where the cities and towns are expanding just like the rest of the country.
The schemes by the NSKFDC are occupation-based and can be availed by all sweepers and a traditional sweeper-family background is not a criterion.
“Our schemes are not caste-based. They are occupation-based and anybody who is a sweeper by profession is entitled to the loan schemes. Moreover family members of sweepers working in government or private sector are entitled to the benefits,” Lalit Kohli, Managing Director of NSKFDC said an awareness camp in Srinagar on Thursday.
At the awareness camp, only 40 family members of Safai Karamchaaris were present, against an expected audience of hundreds of them. “They don’t come,” says Butt, the Divisional Manager.
“Lets see after the door-to-door campaign.”
(Hindustan Times)
