Despite the ban on manual scavenging, which involves manually cleaning and disposing of human excreta, only 249 out of 766 districts in India have so far declared themselves "manual scavenger-free" and uploaded their certificates on the official portal.
This information was shared by the the government in the Parliament on Tuesday.
According to the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 (MS Act), manual scavenging has been illegal since December 2013, following a Supreme Court ruling.
Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, Ramdas Athawale, informed the Lok Sabha in response to a written question that in line with a Supreme Court order, 22 families of manual scavenging death victims were provided Rs. 30 lakh in compensation last October.
However, no incidents of disability due to manual scavenging have been reported.
In compliance of the Supreme Court order issued last year, in October, 22 families of death victims have been provided compensation of Rs. 30 lakhs, whereas, no incident of disability has been reported from the States/Union Territories.
As per the MS Act, 2013, no person or agency can engage or employ any person for manual scavenging from the above date. “Any person or agency who engages any person for manual scavenging in violation of the provisions of the MS Act, 2013 is punishable under Section 8 of the above Act, with imprisonment upto 2 years or fine upto Rs. one lakh or both,” said the Union Minister.
No death has been reported due to manual scavenging which is lifting of human excreta from Insanitary latrines. Further, no report from States/UTs has been received about the inhuman practice of manual scavenging.
As directed by the Supreme Court, a fresh survey of manual scavengers as per the law, States/UTs were provided survey guidelines and requested to conduct surveys of manual scavengers after Constituting District Level Survey Committees and other Committees.
A mobile application and portal has also been developed to capture the data of Manual Scavengers and insanitary latrines in urban and rural areas, if any, said Athawale.
