More than 90 percent of workers cleaning urban sewers and septic tanks are SC, ST, OBC
#News Bureau September 30,2024
Look at the picture above. Just seeing it gives you goosebumps, right? The sanitation workers drown in the filth. As soon as they get down, they are breathless. And sometimes they even lose their lives. There have been continuous reports of sanitation workers dying while cleaning sewer lines. No concrete work has been done so far to even count such deaths. However, every now and then some statistics are definitely given. Finding the reason for this or making a policy for preventive measures is a far cry. So the question is who does such a dangerous job? Who are these people?
An attempt has now been made to find the answer to this question. In a first-of-its-kind attempt to count people engaged in the hazardous job of cleaning sewers and septic tanks in India’s cities and towns, government data collected from over 3,000 urban local bodies across 29 states and union territories shows that of the 38,000 workers profiled so far, 91.9% belong to the Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) or Other Backward Class (OBC) communities, reports The Hindu. Breaking these down, 68.9% of the workers were from the Scheduled Caste, 14.7% from the Other Backward Class, 8.3% from the Scheduled Tribe and 8% from the General category.
The Supreme Court’s orders regarding cleaning of septic tanks, drains and sewage water are being openly violated. This is because the Supreme Court, in one of its decisions, has completely banned the cleaning of sewage, septic tanks or drains by hand. Therefore, it is illegal to employ labourers in this work. But the Supreme Court’s orders on this issue have been flouted. While hearing a petition of the Safai Karmachari Andolan, the Supreme Court had asked the commission related to it in the year 2014 to find out how many such deaths have occurred. Then the commission asked all the state governments and union territories to submit a report. Only 13, that is, less than half the states submitted the report.
However, on the basis of newspaper cuttings and other information from the government, the number of people who died in sewer lines from January 2017 to the last months of 2018 was stated to be 123. This report was prepared by the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis. But the problem is that the basis of this number is not solid. Out of 29 states and seven union territories, only 13 states and union territories had sent the data. Then the Safai Karamchari Andolan, an organization of Magsaysay Award winner Bezwada Wilson, called the government’s figures wrong and said that the number was 300. The organization made this claim on the basis of the death figures of sanitation workers and their post-mortem reports.
However, according to the government data presented in Parliament later, between 2019 and 2023, at least 377 people have died across the country due to dangerous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks.
The profiling of sewer and septic tank workers is being done by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment under its Namaste programme. It is a scheme to mechanise all sewer work and prevent deaths due to hazardous cleaning work.
The scheme was introduced in 2023-24, replacing the Self-Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers.
The Centre argues that manual scavenging has ended as a practice across the country and what needs to be fixed now is the hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks. The ministry says the Namaste programme targets “workers directly involved in the cleaning of sewers and septic tanks, including drivers, helpers, machine operators and cleaners of desludging vehicles”, reports The Hindu. It aims to identify such workers in a nationwide census exercise, provide them with safety training and equipment, and capital subsidies to enable sewer and septic tank workers to become sanitation entrepreneurs.
According to the report, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs estimates that there are 100 core safai karmacharis for an urban population of five lakh.
Twelve states and union territories, including Kerala, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir, have completed the profiling process, while the process is still underway in 17 states, including Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. Chhattisgarh, Meghalaya and West Bengal are among the states that have not yet started the profiling process. Tamil Nadu and Odisha are running their own programmes for SSWs, and are not reporting data to the Centre under the programme.
Under the previous SRMS scheme, the government had identified 58,098 manual scavengers till 2018. It has since insisted that no other manual scavengers have been identified. It has claimed that none of the over 6,500 complaints of manual scavenging could be substantiated.
Ministry records showed that all 58,098 people identified as manual scavengers as of 2018 were given a one-time cash transfer of Rs 40,000 while 18,880 of them opted for skill training in alternative occupations.
