Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Thaawar Chand Gehlot on Thursday gave a three-month deadline to all State officials for completing the surveys of all manual scavengers and related activity.
In his second meeting of the Central Monitoring Committee, Gehlot was reviewing the implementation of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act.
The report presented to the Minister showed that about 4.15 lakh insanitary latrines have been identified in seven States in the survey so far. Another survey showed that about 11,000 manual scavengers have been identified in 23 States. Both the surveys are ongoing.
“We need to expedite the implementation of the Act. All survey activity should also be completed at the earliest,” said Gehlot. “The State bodies should draw up a list of all sewage cleaners who died at work since 1993 and be speedily paid up their due compensation of Rs 10 lakh, as per the guidelines of the Supreme Court,” he said. Gehlot also asked all the States and Union Territories to implement the provisions of the Act in time-bound manner.