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Introduction

Despite legal bans and targeted schemes, manual septic tank cleaning in India remains a hazardous and dehumanising practice. Sanitation workers continue to enter toxic pits without safety gear, often leading to fatal accidents and chronic health issues. This not only endangers their lives but also violates their dignity, reinforcing deep-rooted caste-based discrimination and systemic neglect.

Key Issues Plaguing Septic Tank Cleaning Practices Today

• Contractual Employment Obscures Accountability: Most sanitation workers are hired through informal or third-party contracts, blurring responsibility in case of fatalities.
• Lack of Safety Gear and Training: There’s a stark gap between the number of hazardous workers and the availability of protective gear and awareness programs.
  Eg: Of 57,758 workers, only 16,791 were given PPE kits, and 837 safety workshops were held across 4,800 ULBs.
• Inadequate Financial Allocation: Insufficient funding severely limits mechanisation and effective implementation of sanitation schemes.
  Eg: Only ₹14 crore was released under the NAMASTE scheme, not enough to mechanise sanitation in even one major city.
• Non-compliance with Judicial Orders: Despite Supreme Court rulings, many local bodies have failed to notify employer liability norms or cancel illegal contracts.
• Marginalisation in Rehabilitation Measures: Dalit workers and women cleaners remain excluded from meaningful rehabilitation and support services.
• Gender and Rural Sanitation Neglect: Women sanitation workers and rural manual scavengers receive even less policy and data coverage.

Measures to Ensure Safe, Dignified, Mechanised Sanitation Work

• Mandatory Mechanisation and Licensing: All sewer/septic tank cleaning must be mechanised and regulated as a licensed profession to prevent human entry.
  Eg: Odisha has ensured access to mechanised desludging vehicles and PPE kits for identified workers.
• Worker-Owned Sanitation Enterprises: Provide capital and service guarantees to workers to operate machines as independent entrepreneurs.
• Strict Penal Provisions for Violations: Operating without a mechanised licence must be treated as a cognisable offence with clear legal consequences.
  Eg: ULBs must enforce licensing rules, penalising manual cleaning contracts violating the 2013 Act.
• Strengthen Emergency Response and Audits: Sanitation response units must be functional, and independent audits should monitor safety and compliance.
• Extend Schemes to Rural and Women Workers: Mechanisation and NAMASTE profiling must include gram panchayats and address the specific needs of women workers.
  Eg: Septic tank cleaning should be added to Swachh Bharat (Gramin) with focus on rural sanitation equity.

Conclusions

Despite legal bans and multiple interventions, unsafe sanitation work persists due to poor enforcement, caste neglect, and inadequate mechanisation. A national mission combining technology, political will, and dignity-driven rehabilitation must replace the status quo to truly liberate sanitation workers from hazardous and dehumanising conditions.

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