Context:
Recent data from the NAMASTE scheme involving over 3,000 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) shows that 92% of the 38,000 workers engaged in manual scavenging and hazardous cleaning tasks in India’s cities are from Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), and Other Backward Class (OBC) communities. This significant statistic not only underscores the prevalence of caste-based occupational segregation but also highlights the ongoing risks and challenges faced by these communities in such dangerous professions
Relevance:
GS II- Government policies and Interventions
Dimensions of the Article:
- NAMASTE Scheme
- NAMASTE Initiative’s Key Outcomes
- Manual Scavenging in India
- Existing provisions regarding Manual Labour
NAMASTE Scheme
- Namaste is a Central Sector Scheme of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJE) as a joint initiative of the MoSJE and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA).
- NAMASTE envisages safety and dignity of sanitation workers in urban India by creating an enabling ecosystem that recognizes sanitation workers as one of the key contributors in operations and maintenance of sanitation infrastructure thereby providing sustainable livelihood and enhancing their occupational safety through capacity building and improved access to safety gear and machines.
- Ensure safety and dignity of sanitation workers in urban India and providing sustainable livelihood and enhancing their occupational safety through capacity building and improved access to safety gear and machines.
- NAMASTE would also aim at providing access to alternative livelihoods support and entitlements to reduce the vulnerabilities of sanitation workers and enable them to access self-employment and skilled wage employment opportunities and break the intergenerationality in sanitation work.
- In addition, NAMASTE would bring about a behavior change amongst citizens towards sanitation workers and enhance demand for safe sanitation services.
Five hundred cities (converging with AMRUT cities) will be taken up under this phase of NAMASTE. The list of cities will be notified at an appropriate time. The category of cities that will be eligible are given below:
- All Cities and Towns with a population of over one lakh with notified Municipalities, including Cantonment Boards (Civilian areas),
- All Capital Cities/Towns of States/ Union Territories (UTs), not covered in 4(i),
- Ten Cities from hill states, islands and tourist destinations (not more than one from each State).
NAMASTE Initiative’s Key Outcomes:
- Zero Fatalities: Achieving no deaths during sanitation work across India.
- Skilled Workforce: Ensuring all sanitation tasks are handled by properly trained workers.
- Safety Measures: Eliminating direct contact between sanitation workers and human waste.
- Empowerment of Workers: Organizing sanitation workers into Self-Help Groups (SHGs), equipping them to manage their own sanitation enterprises.
- Alternative Livelihoods: Providing sewer and septic tank sanitation workers with access to different livelihood options.
- Enhanced Oversight: Strengthening monitoring and supervisory systems across national, state, and local urban bodies to ensure the enforcement of safe sanitation practices.
- Awareness Building: Promoting increased awareness among sanitation service users, encouraging them to engage certified and skilled sanitation workers.
Manual Scavenging in India
- Manual scavenging is defined as “the removal of human excrement from public streets and dry latrines, cleaning septic tanks, gutters and sewers”.
- In 1993, India banned the employment of people as manual scavengers (The Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993), however, the stigma and discrimination associated with it still linger on.
- In 2013, the definition of manual scavengers was also broadened to include people employed to clean septic tanks, ditches, or railway tracks. The Act recognizes manual scavenging as a “dehumanizing practice,” and cites a need to “correct the historical injustice and indignity suffered by the manual scavengers.”
Prevalence of Manual Scavenging in India
- As per the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis (NCSK), a total of 631 people have died in the country while cleaning sewers and septic tanks in the last 10 years.
- 2019 saw the highest number of manual scavenging deaths in the past five years. 110 workers were killed while cleaning sewers and septic tanks.
- This is a 61% increase as compared to 2018, which saw 68 cases of such similar deaths.
- Despite the introduction of several mechanised systems for sewage cleaning, human intervention in the process still continues.
- As per data collected in 2018, 29,923 people are engaged in manual scavenging in Uttar Pradesh, making it the highest in any State in India.
Why is manual scavenging still a concern after so many years?
- A number of independent surveys have talked about the continued reluctance on the part of state governments to admit that the practice prevails under their watch.
- Many times, local bodies outsource sewer cleaning tasks to private contractors. However, many of them fly-by-night operators, do not maintain proper rolls of sanitation workers. In case after case of workers being asphyxiated to death, these contractors have denied any association with the deceased.
- The practice is also driven by caste, class and income divides. It is linked to India’s caste system where so-called lower castes are expected to perform this job. It is linked to India’s caste system where so-called lower castes are expected to perform this job.
Existing provisions regarding Manual Labour
- Prevention of Atrocities Act: In 1989, the Prevention of Atrocities Act became an integrated guard for sanitation workers; more than 90% people employed as manual scavengers belonged to the Scheduled Caste. This became an important landmark to free manual scavengers from designated traditional occupations.
- The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013: Superseding the 1993 Act, the 2013 Act goes beyond prohibitions on dry latrines, and outlaws all manual excrement cleaning of insanitary latrines, open drains, or pits.
- Article 21 of the Constitution guarantees ‘Right to Life’ and that also with dignity. This right is available to both citizens and non-citizens.
-Source: The Hindu
