By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi: Ninety-two per cent of workers engaged in the hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks in India’s cities and towns belonged to Scheduled Caste (SC), scheduled Tribe(ST) or other backward class (OBC) communities, according to the latest Government data tabled in the Parliament.
In between 2019 and 2023, at least 377 people across the country have died from hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks, the data revealed.
The data gathered from over 38,000 urban local bodies in 29 States an Union Territories showed that 91.9 per cent of the 38,000 workers profiled so far belonged to SC, ST, and OBC communities. Of the profiled workers, 68.9 per cent were SC, 14.7 per cent were OBC, 8.3 per cent were ST and 8 per cent were from the general category.
The profiling of sewer and septic tank workers (SSWs) s being carried out by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment as part of its NAMASTE programme , a scheme to mechanize all sewer work and prevent deaths due to hazardous cleaning work. In 2023-24 , the scheme was brought in to replace the Self-Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers (SRMS).
The Union Government’s rationale is that manual as a practice has ended across the country and what needs to be fixed now is the hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks. It draws the distinction based on a technical difference in how manual scavenging and hazardous cleaning are defined in the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act.
The NAMASTE programme targets “workers directly associated with sewer and septic tank cleaning including drivers of desludging vehicles, helpers , machine operators and cleaners” the Ministry said.
Its goal is to profile such workers in a nationwide enumertion exercise, give them safety training and equipment, and offer capital subsidies that could turn sewer and septic tank workers into “sanipreneurs” or sanitation entrepreneurs.
Since the scheme began a year ago, 3326 urban local bodies (ULBs), have begun the process and profiled around 38,000 SSWs. So far, 283 ULBs have reported zero SSWs and 2364 ULBs have reported less than 10 SSWs each, the Survey report said.
