Question : Manual Scavenging

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EMPOWERMENT
LOK SABHA

UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.1181
TO BE ANSWERED ON 27.07.2021

MANUAL SCAVENGING
1181. DR. BHARATIBEN DHIRUBHAI SHIYAL:
DR. ARVIND KUMAR SHARMA:

Will the Minister of SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EMPOWERMENT be pleased to state:
(a) whether the Government is working on any proposal to address the issue of manual scavenging as despite claims made by many State Governments that degrading practice of manual scavenging have been eliminated, it is still in existence; and
(b) if so, the details thereof along with the detailed efforts made by the Government and outcomes achieved?

ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EMPOWERMENT
(SHRI RAMDAS ATHAWALE)

(a) & (b): Yes Sir. Government is committed to complete elimination of the practice of manual scavenging. Apart from strict implementation of the provisions of The Prohibition of Manual Scavenging Act 2013, a survey has been conducted in which 58,098 persons were identified as having been engaged as manual scavengers. Of these, all eligible persons have been paid one time cash assistance and released from this work. 16,057 persons have been provided skill development training for alternative livelihoods. 1,387 beneficiaries have been provided capital subsidy for self employment projects.

Apart from this, to ensure that no insanitary latrine is left in the Country, under the Swachh Bharat Mission, 1071.05 lakh individual sanitary toilets in rural areas and 62.57 lakh in urban areas have been constructed replacing, in many cases, the insanitary latrines. This has effectively reduced the practice of manual scavenging. Despite this, in order to verify if any more insanitary latrines have been left, this Ministry has launched a mobile application “Swachhata Abhiyaan” on 24.12.2020 under which any person can upload the details, including photographs of the insanitary latrine and manual scavenger, if any engaged in its cleaning.
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