The definition of a manual scavenger is too narrow to include millions of these above-listed sanitation workers in the government’s database.
“Poop” – A morning routine for one and all but the occupation of some unfortunates. Imagine someone involved in working with human fecal matter every day of their life, an occupation they didn’t even choose for themselves. The occupation imposed upon them by the caste stigma and most probably will be imposed upon their children too. These socially banished groups of people are generally termed as ‘manual scavengers’.
Efforts are being made by the government to improve sanitation but it seems the government is much focused on infrastructure development and has turned a blind eye towards the plight of millions of sanitation workers in the country.
The definition of manual scavenging in legal corrective actions in India is too narrow.
Due to the untiring efforts of organizations like Safai Karmachari Andolan and other ally activists, the government introduced laws like ‘The Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act,1993’ and ‘The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act 2013’.
The 2013 act defines Manual Scavenging as “A person engaged or employed by an individual or a local authority or an agency or a contractor, for manually cleaning, carrying, disposing of or otherwise handling in any manner human excreta in an insanitary latrine or an open drain or pit into which the human excreta from the insanitary latrines is disposed of, or on a railway track or in such other spaces or premises, as the Central Government or State government may notify before the excreta fully decomposes in such a manner as may be prescribed..’.
But this act fails to expand the scope of manual scavenging and makes it confined to one homogenous category of work. A study conducted by Dalberg Advisors found that of the 5 million people employed as sanitation workers, there are nine different types of work under the umbrella of sanitation workers. The nine categories listed in the study called The Sanitation Workers Project are as follows:-
- Sewer Cleaning: It includes the work of unblocking and cleaning sewer and wastewater drains. The people are employed on a contractual basis in urban and semi-urban areas to address complaint-based cloggings and seasonal preventive maintenance.
- Public and Community Toilets: The scope of work includes maintaining public/community toilets which are mostly unsanitary daily. These toilets are mostly located in slums and public convenience centres which include both rural and urban community toilets.
- Domestic work: The scope of work includes cleaning toilets in middle-high income households/institutions, encountering insanitary conditions at times. The location of such toilets is in urban areas.
- Railway Stations: The scope of work includes cleaning faecal matter from the railway tracks and platforms, railway toilets, and platform toilets several times a day across the rail network and railway stations.
- Unsanitary latrines: The scope of work includes emptying of dry/single-pit latrines primarily in rural areas and also daily collection and transport/emptying of faecal matter in rural areas.
- Sewage Treatment Plants: It includes maintaining and operating sewage and faecal sludge treatment plants daily in approximately 527 STPs/FSTPs across India.
- Septic Tanks: The scope of work includes emptying, collecting, and transport human waste from septic tanks on an on-demand basis. The de-sludging frequency varies greatly ranging from 6 months to 10 and even 15 years in some cases. These septic tanks are mostly located in unplanned urban localities.
- School Toilets: The scope of work includes operating and maintaining school toilets in rural as well as urban areas daily.
- Sweeping and Drain Cleaning: This includes cleaning open drains and road sweeping, often encountering faecal matter due to open defecation and insanitary latrines connected to drains. These are mostly in urban areas where drains run alongside roads.
The definition of a manual scavenger is too narrow to include millions of these above-listed sanitation workers in the government’s database. This is the reason for their exclusion from the corrective action schemes. Acknowledgement is the first step towards change and hence the government should first acknowledge the existing problems. The government must work with the stakeholders to frame effective policies for the betterment of manual scavengers.
It is a matter of shame for us that even after seven decades of independence, our people are forced to live and work in such inhumane conditions and it won’t be wrong to say that we as a society have collectively failed them. Any human of sound mind can be moved by seeing such pathetic conditions of most vulnerable people but the fact that no one is batting an eye towards them hints that India is a nation with dead conscience.