Out of 766 districts in the country, 732 districts have declared themselves manual scavenging-free as on July 31, according to Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale. He said that under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban 2.0), funds amounting to Rs 371 crore have been approved for release to states to be provided to smaller towns to acquire machines and improve their state of mechanisation. States have reported to have/access to 5000+ standard septic tank vehicles, 1100+ Hydrovac and 1000+ desilting machines, the minister informed the Lok Sabha.
Urban Local Bodies are advised by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to incorporate in their by-laws BIS 2470 standards for septic tanks and enforce the same while giving building permissions. Advisories have also been issued to provide safety gears to workers, provide helpline facilities for emergency desludging, and also take up IEC activities, according to an official statement quoting the minister.
As per Sections 2(d) and 2(g) of the ‘Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013’, the definition of Hazardous Cleaning and Manual Scavengers is as follows: ‘Hazardous Cleaning' by an employee, in relation to a sewer or septic tank, means its manual cleaning by such employee without the employer fulfilling his obligations to provide protective gear and other cleaning devices and ensuring observance of safety precautions, as may be prescribed or provided in any other law, for the time being in force or rules made thereunder.
‘Manual Scavenger’ means a person engaged or employed by an individual or a local authority or a public or private agency, 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 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.
