New Delhi: Between 2018 and 2023, 339 people lost lives while cleaning sewers and septic tanks in India, Union social justice and empowerment ministry said.Responding to a question in Lok Sabha on Tuesday, July 25, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, Ramdas Athawale, said nine such deaths were recorded in 2023, 66 in 2022, 58 in 2021, 22 in 2020, 117 in 2019, and 67 deaths in 2018.“Deaths have occurred in states/UTs due to hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks and non observance of safety precautions as prescribed under Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 and MS Rules 2013,” the government said.Manual scavenging is an outlawed practice under the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation (PEMSR) Act, 2013. 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 response to the question “whether Self-Employment Scheme of Liberation & Rehabilitation of Scavengers has been removed from the budget 2023-24”, the minister said the scheme has been renamed as National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem (NAMASTE).In a piece published on The Wire in March 2022, researchers Jawed Alam Khan and Rahat Tasneem said, “The government’s obstinate denial regarding the existence of manual scavenging is proving to be detrimental in making any real progress.”The Self-Employment Scheme of Liberation & Rehabilitation of Scavengers (SRMS) is one of the most important government interventions for the elimination of the practice. Implemented by the National Safai Karmacharis Finance and Development Corporation (NSKFDC) more than 10 years ago, it is far from meeting its goals. Launched in 2007, the objective of SRMS was to rehabilitate manual scavengers and their dependents in alternative occupations by 2009.
