The government on Wednesday said that there were no deaths recorded due to manual scavenging in India. However, a total of 161 people died while cleaning sewers and septic tanks in the last three years
Representational image. News18
The government on Wednesday said that there were no deaths recorded due to manual scavenging in India. However, a total of 161 people died while cleaning sewers and septic tanks in the last three years.
Responding to a question in Rajya Sabha, Union Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Virendra Kumar said 118 such deaths were reported in 2019, 19 in 2020 and 24 in 2021.
He, however, added that there was no report of deaths due to manual scavenging.
A total of 971 people have died while cleaning sewers and septic tanks since 1993, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale said while responding to another question.
Even though the nature of work is the same, why manual scavenging is different in the books compared to cleaning of sewers and septic tanks, let’s find out:
What is manual scavenging?
Manual scavenging is banned under the Prohibition of Employment As Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 (PEMSR Act, 2013).
As per the Act, the term manual scavenger means “a person engaged or employed, at the commencement of this Act or at any time thereafter, by an individual or a local authority or an agency or a contractor, for manually cleaning, carrying, disposing of, or otherwise handling in any manner, human excreta in an insanitary latrine or in an open drain or pit into which the human excreta from the insanitary latrines is disposed of, or on a railway track or in such other spaces or premises, as the Central Government or a State Government may notify, before the excreta fully decomposes in such manner as may be prescribed, and the expression ‘manual scavenging’ shall be construed accordingly”.
According to a study conducted by WaterAid India, “One manual scavenger dies every five days in India since January 2017.”
Why is cleaning sewers not recognised at manual scavenging?
According to a report by FactChecker, which quotes an National Commission for Safai Karamcharis (NCSK) official, manual scavengers are primarily those “engaged in cleaning [excreta] manually, with their hands, on the surface”.
NCSK is a statutory body created for the welfare of sanitation workers under the Ministry for Social Justice and Empowerment.
“There are no deaths that happen in such cases. When it comes to cleaning sewers, deaths are continuously occurring,” said the official, who did not wish to be named.
After Athawale made a similar statement last year that no manual scavengers had died in the country in the last five years, it received flak from social activists and union workers.
Bezwada Wilson, national convener of Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA), told FactChecker that there was essentially no difference.
“Sewage and septic tank cleaners are also manual scavengers. The statement made in the Rajya Sabha is inhuman and manipulated because instead of manual scavengers, different words have been used to describe those engaging in such work. This is very cruel,” Wilson said.
Pragya Akhilesh, secretary of Bhim Safai Karmachari Trade Union, said that denying the existence of the manual scavenging problem gives a free pass to contractors and administrations to continue exploiting manual scavengers.
“There are many categories of manual scavengers also missing from the [PEMSR] Act, like domestic sanitation workers who work in residential and commercial areas, and more who are completely ignored,” Akhilesh added in the report.
The situation in other countries
Manual scavenging persists in Pakistan, but mostly for religious minorities, including lower-caste Hindus who converted to Christianity years ago. As per a 2019 report by The New York Times, Pakistani military had placed newspaper advertisements for sewer sweepers with the caveat that only Christians could apply.
According to a report by Scroll.in, Bangladesh too is struggling with sewage and waste disposal.
The neighbouring country still depends on manual labour to clean septic tanks and sewers.
According to the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority, only 20 per cent of the city is served by a piped sewer network and the city relies on individuals and private contractors to manually remove septic tank sludge.
Further West, in the US there is machinery to treat the sewage into potable water. Similarly, Mexico has adopted the ecological sanitation model.
Ecological sanitation is a waste management model that treats human excreta, wash water and urine as agricultural resources that can be safely collected, stored and treated.
With inputs from agencies
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