Mangalore: Believe it or not, 60-year-old Akku and 59-year-old Leela, residents of Kinnimulki and Beedinagudde in Udupi respectively, have been working as scavenger/sweeper in Government Women Teachers Training Institute at Udupi for a meagre basic salary of Rs 15 per month for the last 42 years!

Revealing the same to media persons here on Tuesday, Human Rights Protection Foundation (Udupi) President Dr Ravindranath Shanbhag, said that though the Supreme Court had passed the judgment on January 22, 2010, directing the State government to consider their claim for regularisation of employment with principles laid down by the Constitution Bench in State of Karnataka and others Vs Uma Devi and others, the duo have not received the due which they were liable even to this day.

“These two women have been repeatedly requesting the higher authorities in the department of education since 1971, to sanction minimum wages given to scavengers /sweepers. In 1999, they approached the Human Rights Protection Foundation, an NGO, for guidance and support. Even after two years of systematic correspondence from the NGO, there was no result,” he said.

In 2001, the duo filed a petition before the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal (KAT) at Bangalore. Soon after filing the case, the Education Department stopped even the meager salary they have been paying. But the duo continued to work without salary in the hope of getting justice from the court, he said.

Shanbhag said the KAT had directed the government to regularise the services and pay the pending wages within 90 days in its order dated July 25, 2003.
When the duo failed to get justice, they filed contempt proceedings against the government on September 6, 2004.

In reply to it, the education department filed an appeal before the Karnataka High Court against the KAT order. On October 4, 2004, Karnataka High court dismissed the appeal by the government after hearing and ordered the Government to pay the salaries. Notices were issued for contempt of courts when salaries were not paid.

Instead of paying their salaries, in 2005, Karnataka government challenged the High Court order by filing special leave petition before the Supreme Court of India. Inspite of the Supreme court’s order in favour of the duo, the government has failed to pay the dues even after two and a half years of the Supreme Court’s verdict.
Now the authorities concerned are saying that the women are not employable because they have reached the retirement age.

Akku, who was present in the press meet, said that she joined the work in the Institute after her mother’s death. “My mother was getting a salary of Rs 6 per month. Though initially, the authorities concerned said that they have written to the government to regularise the service, I kpet working with a hope of better future.

In fact, my appointment as a sweeper was approved by deputy director of public instruction, South Canara,” she narrated her story and added that she has five children, and her husband is a asthama patient. “I want my daughters to get married. Hoping for a better future, I continued the work.”

She said: “I had met B S Yeddyurappa, when he was the Chief Minister. However, he had turned down her appeal.”

“If I had to regularise your service following Supreme Court order, then there are over 75,000 persons with similar problems waiting for the regularisation of the service,” Yeddyurappa reportedly told Akku, she claimed.

When asked how they were eking out for living, the duo said: “We were working in the houses of other teachers in the institute, who were paying us Rs 50 to Rs 100.”
Shanbhag said that it is surprising that the government thought it better to spend lakhs on fighting these cases than pay to these two women. “The air fare and DA paid to the lawyers travelling would have probably been enough to pay their arrears,” he said sarcastically.