Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday launched the ‘Safaimitra Suraksha Challenge’ across 243 cities in the country, a move that aims to mechanise all sewer and septic tank cleaning operations by April 30 next year.
Addressing a webinar on ‘World Toilet Day’, Puri said the challenge is to ensure that no life of any sewer or septic tank cleaner is ever lost again owing to the issue of “hazardous cleaning”.
The Minister, according to a statement, said this is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision, who has always placed the safety and dignity of sanitation workers at the core of the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U).
The virtual event saw the chief secretaries, state mission directors and other senior state and union territories coming together to take a pledge on behalf of 243 cities to mechanise all sewer and septic tank cleaning operations by April 30, 2021, and gave their commitment to work towards preventing any deaths from hazardous entry, it said.
“The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act (2013) and various judgements of Hon’ble Supreme Court expressly prohibit hazardous cleaning, i.e. manual entry into a septic tank or sewer without protective gear and observing operating procedures,” the statement quoted Puri as saying at the event.
He said despite this, recurring episodes of human fatalities among those engaged in cleaning of septic tanks and sewers, typically belonging to the economically disadvantaged and marginalised communities of society, continue to be an issue of concern. As many as 4,337 Urban local bodies (ULBs) have been declared open defecation free (ODF) (except 35 ULBs of West Bengal), it said. “Besides, over 62 lakhs individual household toilets and over 5.9 lakhs community/ public toilets have been constructed. Additionally, over 59,900 toilets across 2900 plus cities have been made live on Google Maps,” it added.
In the area of solid waste management, 97 per cent of wards have 100 per cent door-to-door collection while 67 per cent of the total waste generated is being processed, the ministry said.