Ramon Magsaysay awardee Bezwada Wilson led the admirers in paying homage to “people's IAS officer” S.R. Sankaran, who championed the cause of Dalits all through his life, on his 83rd birth anniversary here on Saturday.
Dedicating the award to those spearheading the Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA), its national convener said if only those in power followed the footsteps of Sankaran, the country would become “Azad Bharat”'. He urged the Centre to fix a data for removing all dry latrines as over 1.6 lakh women still continued to do the shameful practice.
It was unfortunate that 10 times more Dalits died due of asphyxiation cleaning blocked sewage lines in the country than all who had succumbed to terror attacks since Independence, he said, and wanted machines to replace men in treatment of sewerage.
Referring to continuing sexual assaults on Dalit women and girls, he said: “I am perplexed as to what what type of society we are living in”.
Lashing out at the “Go Rakshaks”, he said cow cannot be a more sacred animal than a bull or horse or any other animal.
Former Secretary to Prime Minister K.R. Venugopal exhorted religious heads like Sankaracharyas to come out with a public apology for the atrocities committed on Dalits for thousands of years.
