NEW DELHI: The government on Tuesday informed Parliament in response to a written question in Lok Sabha that it has been “able to achieve the target of abolition of manual scavenging” as per the prescribed definition under the law. As per the “Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 (MS Act, 2013)” manual scavenging means manually cleaning, carrying, disposing of, or handling in any manner, human excreta in an insanitary latrine. It is prohibited with effect from December 2013.
In response to another question the ministry of social justice and empowerment states that “no deaths have been reported due to engaging in Manual Scavenging (which is lifting of human excreta from insanitary latrines). However, 321 persons have died due to accidents while undertaking hazardous cleaning of sewer and septic tanks during the last five years.” The minister for social justice and empowerment Virendra Kumar said that surveys conducted for identification of manual scavengers have reported their numbers to be at 58,098.
“All identified and eligible manual scavengers have been provided assistance for their rehabilitation,” Kumar said. A mobile app was launched last year to identify existing insanitary latrines. “After field verification of the data uploaded on the app, no existence of insanitary latrine has been verified. Therefore, there is no report of practice of manual scavenging currently in the country,” the ministry said.
Fatal accidents in sewers and septic tanks are due to non compliance of the prescribed safety measures and standard operating procedure (SOP). A national policy on mechanised sanitation ecosystem has been formulated and circulated to the states for implementation.