On Thursday, the Central government announced a slew of measures to end the discriminatory and hazardous practice of manual scavenging by August 2021. Manual scavenging is the practice of removing human excrement from toilets, septic tanks or sewers by hand.
The measures are part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan (Clean India initiative) launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government — and seek to enforce laws that have banned the practice.
Mechanisation of cleaning
Hardeep Singh Puri, India’s minister of housing and urban affairs, launched the “Safaimitra Suraksha Challenge” on Thursday, coinciding with World Toilet Day.
Delighted to launch Safaimitra Suraksha Challenge across 243 cities. Based on PM Modi’s vision to place safety & dignity of sanitation workers at the core of Swachh Bharat, it aims to ensure that no life is ever lost while cleaning sewer or septic tanks. pic.twitter.com/oGsR5pFw4T
— Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) November 19, 2020
Under the campaign, sewers and septic tanks in 243 cities will be mechanised and a helpline created to register complaints if manual scavenging is reported. Cities which reach the end result will receive prize money.
Durga Shanker Mishra, the ministry’s secretary, went a step further and announced that terminologies would be changed to support the government’s decision to eradicate manual scavenging.
“We have instructed that the word ‘manhole’ is not to be used anymore and only ‘machine-hole’ is to be used from now on,” said Mishra.
Also read: When it Comes to Manual Scavenging, Enacted Laws Have Persistently Failed
Meanwhile, the Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry said that it would directly transfer funds to ‘sanitation workers’ to buy cleaning machines, instead of contractors or municipal corporations.
“We want the workers to own these machines so that these can be used by the municipalities when there is a requirement,” said R Subrahmanyam, the secretary of the ministry.
Outlawed, but with little impact
India began outlawing the employment of manual scavengers in 1993, expanding the law in 2013 — but little impact has been seen on the ground, as hundreds of people continued to be pushed into the profession.
Scavenging is mostly carried out by a sub-group of the Dalits, an outcast community also known as “untouchables” within India’s ancient system of caste hierarchies.
Also read: Sewer Deaths: Only About 50% of Victims’ Families Received Rs 10 Lakh Compensation
“Untouchables” are often impoverished, shunned by society and forbidden from touching Indians of other castes, or even their food.
In 2013, India expanded the definition of manual scavengers to include people employed to clean septic tanks, ditches and railway tracks — but the practice continued.
Last year, government data showed 110 people died while cleaning sewers and septic tanks.
Concerns over implementation
Indian activist, Bezwada Wilson, told NDTV that the current move by Modi’s government was a welcome step, but not much was known about the contents of the initiative.
“Who will receive the machines? Who will monitor? Who will be held accountable for the implementation? How will they give training?” Wilson said. “As far as I know, nothing has been worked out yet.”
“The biggest issue is, the government has not yet identified the people involved in manual scavenging […] Even though mechanisation of sewer and septic cleaning is very much needed, the way this initiative has been launched seems to be a hasty act,” he added.
This article was originally published on DW.