Key Highlights:
- The Union government on Tuesday told Lok Sabha that no person had died from manual scavenging in the country in the last three years (2019 to 2022).
- It added that 233 people had died “due to accidents while undertaking hazardous cleaning of sewer and septic tanks” in this period.
- A total of 48 people had died because of hazardous cleaning of sewers in 2022 alone so far – the maximum in Haryana (13), followed by Maharashtra (12), and Tamil Nadu (10).
Manual Scavenging:
- About:
- It is defined as removing human excrement from public streets and dry latrines and cleaning septic tanks, gutters and sewers.
- In the past, this referred to removing excreta from dry latrines.
- However, new modern sanitation technologies brought new forms of manual scavenging work, which include manual and unsafe cleaning of drains, sewer lines, septic tanks and latrine pits.
- Manual scavenging is banned under the Prohibition of Employment As Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Act, 2013.
- Concern over the Prevalence of Manual Scavenging:
- Scavenging is mainly carried out by a subgroup of the Dalits, an outcast community also known as “untouchables” within India’s ancient system of caste hierarchies.
- Untouchables” are often impoverished, shunned by society and forbidden from touching Indians of other castes or even their food.
- Scavenging continues in parts of India mainly due to governmental indifference and social prejudice.
- There is a complete absence of planning for the maintenance of sewerage, septic tanks, and waste disposal systems in the urban policies made for the city by the state and private companies.
- The number of people killed while cleaning sewers and septic tanks have increased over the last few years.
Government Measures to Tackle Manual Scavenging:
- The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation (Amendment) Bill, 2020:
- It proposes to completely mechanise sewer cleaning, introduce ways for ‘on-site’ protection and provide compensation to manual scavengers in case of sewer deaths.
- It will be an amendment to The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013.
- It is still awaiting cabinet approval.
- The Building and Maintenance of Insanitary Latrines Act of 2013:
- It outlaws the construction or maintenance of unsanitary toilets, hiring anybody for their manual scavenging, and hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks.
- It also provides a constitutional responsibility to provide alternative jobs and other assistance to manual scavenging communities as reparation for historical injustice and indignity.
- The Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act 1993:
- It set imprisonment of up to one year and a fine of Rs 2,000 for pushing a person to manual scavenging.
- Prevention of Atrocities Act:
- In 1989, the Prevention of Atrocities Act became an integrated guard for sanitation workers, more than 90% of people employed as manual scavengers belonged to the Scheduled Caste.
- This became an important landmark in freeing manual scavengers from designated traditional occupations.
- Safaimitra Suraksha Challenge:
- It was launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs on World Toilet Day (19th November) in 2020.
- The Government launched this “challenge” for all states to make sewer-cleaning mechanised by April 2021.
- If any human needs to enter a sewer line in an unavoidable emergency, proper gear, oxygen tanks, etc., must be provided.
- Constitutional Safeguards:
- The Right to Live with Dignity is implicit in the Fundamental Rights guaranteed in Part III of the Constitution.
- Article 46 of the Constitution, on the other hand, provides that the State shall protect the weaker sections, particularly the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, from social injustice and all forms of exploitation.
Way forward:
- Manual scavengers predominantly belong to ex-untouchable castes and, therefore, are subject to additional discrimination and social exclusion based on untouchability. Manual scavenging is a known offence now, and there are laws, but it is still happening. No modern country in the world forces human beings to enter sewers to clean them the technology to prevent that has existed for almost 80 years. However, the availability of cheap labour was the main reason states and central governments did not invest in technology to replace manual scavenging. To prevent manual scavenging, it was essential to ‘decaste’ the profession.
Pic Courtesy: Freepik
Content Source: The Hindu