Context: 

The Supreme Court has directed the government to place on record within six weeks the steps taken by it to implement its nearly 10 year old judgment to end manual scavenging.

What is Manual Scavenging?

• Manual scavenging is the practice of removing human excreta by hand from sewers or septic tanks. 
• India banned the practice under the 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.”

Reasons behind the prevalence of the practise:

• The lack of enforcement of the Act and exploitation of unskilled labourers are the reasons why the practice is still prevalent in India. 
• Cheap labour: The Mumbai civic body charges anywhere between Rs 20,000 and Rs 30,000 to clean septic tanks. The unskilled labourers, meanwhile, are much cheaper to hire and contractors illegally employ them at a daily wage of Rs 300-500.
• Lack of Social Mobility: Due to lack of basic amenities, education, and employment opportunities, manual scavengers are compelled to their job, and even society does not accept them for community activities.
• Insanitary Latrines – According to Safai Karmachari Andolan, the occupation persists mainly because of the continued presence of insanitary latrines. 
  • There are about 2.6 million insanitary latrines (dry toilets) that require cleaning by hand
• Inadequacy of government programmes: Government programmes have majorly emphasised the financial aspect of rehabilitation and failed to address the caste-based oppression and related social conditions that have perpetuated this practice for centuries.
• Also, there are no proper strategies put forward that liberate manual scavengers psychologically
• Caste based division of labour: Manual scavengers are usually from caste groups customarily relegated to the bottom of the caste hierarchy.

Government Interventions:

• The Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993 and employment of manual scavengers was declared unlawful.
• The National Commission for Safai Karamcharis was constituted under the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis Act, 1993, to monitor and recommend specific programs.
• National action plan for the total eradication of manual scavenging by 2007.
• Self-Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers initiated to provide training, loans, and subsidies for alternate occupations in 2007.

• Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation, Act, 2013.
• In 2014, the Supreme Court ruled in Safai Karamchari Andolan v. Union of India that “entering sewer lines without safety gears should be made a crime even in emergency situations,” and ordered for compensation in cases of death of the worker.
• The Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA) was replaced by Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA) in 2014.
• The Ministry for Social Justice and Empowerment announced the Draft National Action Plan Framework ‘to eliminate inhuman practices by 15th August 2022’ and counted sewage cleaning as one such practice.

Key features of the 2013 Act :

• Prohibits the construction or maintenance of insanitary toilets.
• Prohibits the engagement or employment of anyone as a manual scavenger, violations could result in a years’ imprisonment or a fine of INR 50,000 or both.
• Prohibits a person from being engaged or employed for hazardous cleaning of a sewer or a septic tank.
• Offences under the Act are cognizable and non-bailable.
• Calls for a survey of manual scavengers in urban and rural areas within a time-bound framework.

Way-Forward

• Technology adoption at wide scale:  Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board is using 70 mini jetting machines that can access narrow lanes and smaller colonies to clear the choked sewer pipes.
• Target driven approach to measure the success of the sanitation policy.
• Awareness generation: Sanitation workers should be informed about their rights and the laws that protect them from abuse by their employers.

• Enforcement of law: People subjecting others into such inhuman activities should be arrested.
• A comprehensive rehabilitation package has to be put together that includes livelihoods and skill development, access to education for children of former manual scavengers and alternate livelihoods.
• Investing in Proper Human Waste Management: Solving solid and liquid waste segregation problems, as well as bio composting at Municipal level.

News Source: The Hindu 

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