Friday, 17 May, 2024
By: Arshi Qureshi
The Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry mentioned in Lok Sabha that as per survey conducted in 2013 and 2018 - India has more than 58,000 manual scavengers.
The Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry mentioned in Lok Sabha that as per survey conducted in 2013 and 2018 - India has more than 58,000 manual scavengers.
However, The Hindu reported that the ministry's cited figure is low.
According to the most recent government data, between 2017 and 2022 - 347workers lost their lives while doing sewer and septic tank cleaning duties. The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation (PEMSR) Act of 2013 forbids the practice of manual scavenging.
According to data from the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, 325 deaths from manual septic tank and sewer cleaning were reported in 19 states and union territories over the course of the last five years (2017-2021).
More than 40,000 of the 58,098 manual scavengers that have been identified are from the Scheduled Castes, whereas fewer than 1,000 are from the combined Scheduled Tribes and OBCs.
Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu recorded the most sewer related deaths.
Uttar Pradesh, which has the highest number of manual scavengers (32,473) also recorded the highest number of deaths at (52).
Tamil Nadu, which has 398 manual scavengers, recorded 43 deaths.
As per Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Virendra Kumar’s statement in Lok Sabha - 92 manual scavenger deaths were recorded in 2017, 67 in 2018, 116 in 2019, 19 in 2020 and 36 in 2021 and 17 deaths in 2022.
National Commission for Safai Karamcharis (NCSK) data shows that 928 sewer related deaths were recorded from 1993 to 2020.
