Date: 29/08/2022

Relevance: GS-2: Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes; mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections.

Key Phrases: Stigmatization, Layers of Discrimination, Poor Deterrence Mechanism, Vicious Cycle of Poverty, Immobility, and Social Exclusion, Hurdles in survey and verification procedures, Dignity of Labor, Gross Violation of Rights, Crisis of Identity

Why in News?

• Tamil Nadu has recently notified the rules of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013.

Key Highlights about the rules:

• The rules although completely prohibit ‘manual scavenging’, however, in specific conditions allow manual cleaning, where mechanical equipment cannot be deployed to fix the problem, or when it is absolutely necessary to have human intervention, after stating the valid reasons for allowing such a process to take place.
• It specifies a long list of protective devices and gear that any person engaged in cleaning a sewer or a septic tank must be provided, including an airline breathing apparatus, airline respirator, air purifier gas mask, a device for artificial respiration, mask, and breathing apparatus.
• Besides this, chlorine masks, emergency medical oxygen resuscitator kits, gas monitors for gases, hydraulic devices, and first aid will have to be provided by the employer.
• The rules have also mandated regular maintenance of the equipment and devices.

What is manual scavenging?

• Manual scavenging is the practice of removing human excreta by hand from sewers or septic tanks.
• The 2013 Act expanded the definition of manual scavengers to include those who clean railway tracks, but it still leaves out several workers who clean sewerage lines or manholes.

Why is manual scavenging still prevalent in India?

• Purity and Pollution: The concept of purity and pollution prevalent in society puts a burden on the people of lower castes to engage in such jobs.
• Stigmatization: Stigma attached to the practice makes it difficult for the liberated manual scavengers to secure alternative livelihood and thus, get trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty, immobility, and social exclusion.
• Layers of discrimination: The issue has been compounded on account of discrimination from society, as well as bureaucracy and politicians towards deprived castes as a result of which a majority of manual scavengers, about 97%, belong to Scheduled Castes.
• Lack of comprehensive Surveys: The unwillingness to undertake a comprehensive survey, which is central to rehabilitation efforts, undermines the government’s intentions for rehabilitation.
• Lack of Political Will: There is a reluctance to identify manual scavengers as it would increase the State’s responsibility to rehabilitate people and also accurately log death tolls due to sewage cleaning which are nothing but murders by the State due to their own negligence.
• Hurdles in survey and verification procedures: The bureaucratic non-compliance and the regulatory procedures for verification of the scavengers have made it next to impossible for them to be recognised and thus dragging them into a crisis of identity.
• Ambiguous definitions of manual scavenger: There is confusion about who qualifies to be a manual scavenger due to the lack of a proper definition.
• Poor Deterrence Mechanism: The lack of enforcement of the Act despite frequent deaths of manual scavengers
• Lack of education and skills: Exploitation of uneducated and unskilled labourers is the reason why the practice is still prevalent in India. The unskilled labourers, meanwhile, are much cheaper to hire and contractors illegally employ them at a daily wage of Rs 300-500.

Consequences of manual Scavenging:

1. Violation of constitutional and human rights:
   • Over seven decades after the birth of India, the country remains shackled to manual scavenging, conferring indignity on those who have no choice but to carry on the inhuman practice.
   • While the job itself is dangerous, sewage cleaning involves working with human excreta, and thus against the dignity of labor which gives equal respect to all types of jobs, and no occupation is considered superior and there is no discrimination between the jobs on any basis.
   • It is a gross violation of rights to allot the task of removing excreta and cleaning sewers to humans when machines are able to do the work.
2. Health Impact:
   • Manual scavenging becomes susceptible to various life-threatening diseases like asphyxiation and waterborne diseases like typhoid, hepatitis A and B, cholera, dengue, and malaria.
   • On average, three sanitation workers die every five days because of manual scavenging, according to a study by WaterAid.
3. Psychological Impact:
   • The indignity of work weighs heavy on heavy on the psyche and spirit of people who engage in manual scavenging.
   • The denigrating nature of work and its health risks only emphasise the pressing need for rehabilitation. Not just physical impact, the indignity of work weighs heavy on the psyche and spirit of people who engage in manual scavenging.

Various steps taken by the government to prevent manual scavenging

1. Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 (PEMSR):
   • The Act bans the use of any individual for manually cleaning, carrying, disposing of or otherwise handling in any manner, human excreta till its disposal.
   • 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.”
2. Health Insurance Benefits:
   • Taking cognizance of the health issues of manual scavengers and to enhance their health conditions the Government has extended health insurance benefits up to Rs. 5.00 lakh to all the identified manual scavengers under the Ayushman Bharat Yojana.
3. Training Camps: National Safai Karamcharis Finance and Development Corporation (NSKFDC) in collaboration with Skill Council for Green Jobs (SCGJ) is imparting 35 hours of Recognition Prior Learning (RPL) for sanitation workers engaged by Municipal corporations/Municipalities and other Government Agencies. Safety kits consisting of gloves, masks and jackets are distributed to the sanitation workers in these training camps.
4. Swachhta Udyami Yojana: NSKFDC is implementing the scheme, under which loans up to Rs. 50 lakh is provided to the municipalities for the purchase of equipment/vehicles for mechanized cleaning of sewers and septic tanks.
5. Namaste Scheme(National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem):
   • It is a Central Sector Scheme with a joint initiative of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJE) and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
   • NAMASTE envisages the safety and dignity of sanitation workers in urban India by creating an enabling ecosystem that recognizes sanitation workers as one of the key contributors to 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.
   • The scheme will be implemented from 2022 to 2026 across 500 cities and townships notified under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) Scheme.

Way Forward:

• 75 years after independence, poverty, caste inequalities, and government neglect are still leaving manual scavengers stranded on their road to freedom.
• The causes of deaths while cleaning sewers and septic tanks are predictable i.e. noxious gases and not taking measures to prevent those deaths is shameful.
• Systematic identification of insanitary latrines and surveys are central to the implementation of rehabilitation schemes.
• A modern, mechanised sewerage cleaning system, an up-to-date drainage system, and a robust penalising system will go a long way in providing freedom from the shackles of manual scavenging.
• Proper implementation of the rules and adequate monitoring are essential.
• Simultaneously, all efforts must be taken, within existing schemes, to provide compensation to the family members of those who have died, and to provide them a way out of the profession, if they so wish.

Source: The Hindu

Mains Question:

Q. 75 years after independence, poverty, caste inequalities, and government neglect are still leaving manual scavengers stranded on their road to freedom. In this context, analyse the reasons for the continuation of manual scavenging in India. Also, discuss the steps taken by the government to prevent manual scavenging in India. (250 words).