Sewer, septic tank cleaning an occupation-based rather than caste-based activity, Centre tells Lok Sabha 

Government data has shown that nearly 92% of all sewer workers profiled so far belong to SC, ST, and OBC communities; about 8% come from General Category communities

Citing data from its first-ever survey of sewer and septic tank workers (SSWs) across cities and towns of India, the Union Social Justice Ministry on Tuesday (December 17, 2024) told Parliament that sewer and septic tank cleaning is “occupation-based activity rather than caste-based” work.  

The data from the survey, part of the government’s NAMASTE programme and first reported by The Hindu in September this year, showed that nearly 92% of all workers profiled were from Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), or Other Backward Classes (OBCs) communities, with the remaining around 8% coming from the General Category communities.  

Responding to a question from Congress MP from Ganganagar Kuldeep Indora, Union Minister of State for Social Justice Ramdas Athawale said that a total of 54,574 SSWs across 33 States and Union Territories had been profiled and validated so far under the government’s NAMASTE programme. 

Of these, 67.91% (37,060) were from SC communities, 15.73% (8,587) were from OBC communities, 8.31% (4,536) were from ST communities, and 8.05% (4,391) were from the General Category.  

“Sewer and septic tank cleaning is an occupation-based activity rather than caste-based,” Mr. Athawale said. 

Profiling of SSWs is being carried out as part the NAMASTE programme, a scheme to mechanise all sewer work and prevent deaths due to hazardous cleaning work. In 2023-24, this scheme was brought in to replace the Self-Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers.  

The Union government’s rationale is that manual scavenging as a practice has ended across the country and what needs to be fixed now is the hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks. It draws this distinction based on a technical difference in how manual scavenging and hazardous cleaning are defined in the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act.  

Between 2019 and 2023, at least 377 people across the country died from hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks, according to government data tabled in Parliament.  

The NAMASTE programme targets “workers directly associated with sewer and septic tank cleaning including drivers of desludging vehicles, helpers, machine operators and cleaners”, the Ministry says. Its goal is to profile such workers in a nationwide enumeration exercise, give them safety training and equipment, and offer capital subsidies that could turn sewer and septic tank workers into “sanipreneurs“, or sanitation entrepreneurs. 

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs estimates that there are 100 core sanitation workers for an urban population of five lakh. Based on this, the government used decadal growth rates to estimate that as of 2021, there are likely to be one lakh SSWs employed by India’s 4,800 urban local bodies. The NAMASTE programme intends to profile all SSWs across the country to create a central database.  

Apart from the profiling, the NAMASTE programme has provided over 16,700 personal protective equipment (PPE) kits and 43 safety device kits for emergency sanitation response units across urban local bodies so far, the government said in its reply in Lok Sabha.  

It added that over 13,000 beneficiaries had been given Ayushmaan Cards, capital subsidies had been provided to about 503 beneficiaries and their families for sanitation-related projects, and capital subsidies had been provided to about 226 beneficiaries and family members for alternate livelihoods.  

Published - December 17, 2024 04:30 pm IST