Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs
The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJ&E) is preparing to undertake a nationwide survey to enumerate all Sanitation workers engaged in cleaning of sewers and septic tanks.
- The enumeration exercise is part of the National Action Plan for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem (NAMASTE) Scheme and will be conducted across 500 AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation) cities.
- It will merge with and replace the Self-Employment Scheme for the Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers (SRMS), which was started in 2007.
- Programme Monitoring Units (PMUs) for the 500 AMRUT cities will be set up to carry out the exercise.
- Once this exercise is completed across the 500 cities, it will be expanded nationwide, making it easier to bring government benefits like upskilling and loan and capital subsidies to them.
NAMASTE Scheme
- It was launched in July 2022.
- The NAMASTE scheme is being undertaken jointly by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and the MoSJ&E and aims to eradicate unsafe sewer and septic tank cleaning practices.
Objectives:
- Zero fatalities in sanitation work in India.
- All sanitation work is performed by skilled workers.
- No sanitation workers come in direct contact with human faecal matter.
- Sanitation workers are collectivised into Self Help Groups (SHGs) and are empowered to run sanitation enterprises.
- Strengthened supervisory and monitoring systems at National, State and Urban Local Body (ULB) levels to ensure enforcement and monitoring of safe sanitation work.
- Increased awareness among sanitation services seekers (individuals and institutions) to seek services from registered and skilled sanitation workers.
Need for Enumeration Exercise
- Manual Scavenging has led to at least 351 deaths since 2017.
- It is aimed at streamlining the process of rehabilitating sanitation workers.
- It will make it easier to bring government benefits like upskilling and loan and capital subsidies to them.
- To link listed sanitation workers to the SwaachhaUdyamiYojana, through which the workers will be able to own sanitation machines themselves and the government will ensure that at the municipality level, the work keeps coming in.
- SwaachhaUdyamiYojana has twin objectives of cleanliness and providing livelihood to SafaiKaramcharisand liberated Manual Scavengers to achieve the overall goal of “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan”.
Social Issue:
- The practice is driven by caste, class and income divides.
- It is linked to India’s caste system where so-called lower castes are expected to perform this job.
- In 1993, India banned the employment of people as manual scavengers (The Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993), however, the stigma and discrimination associated with it still linger on.
- This makes it difficult for liberated manual scavengers to secure alternative livelihoods.
Way Forward
- With Swachh Bharat Mission identified as a top priority area by the 15th Finance Commission and funds available for smart cities and urban development providing for a strong case to address the problem of manual scavenging.
- To address the social sanction behind manual scavenging, it is required first to acknowledge and then understand how and why manual scavenging continues to be embedded in the caste system.
SOURCE: THE HINDU,THE ECONOMIC TIMES,MINT
