New bill to ban manual scavenging in monsoon session

The new Bill on eliminating manual scavenging and enforcing stringent penalties to end the inhumane practice will be tabled in the Parliament during the monsoon session.

The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Bill, 2012 is another attempt by the government to end the heinous occupation of manual scavenging which is widespread in India.

Besides punishing the employing of scavengers and construction of dry (non-flush) latrines, the new Bill also makes provisions for rehabilitation of those engaged in the occupation.

Manual scavenging is one the most degrading and discriminatory social practice that exist in India. The workers are forced to clean human excrement with their bare hands for little or no wages. It is a caste-based occupation and the vast majority of workers involved are women from the Scheduled Castes.

According to latest census figures, some 7.4 lakh manual scavengers are still engaged in collecting and disposing night soil from homes. Among the states, J&K has the highest rate of manual scavenging in households, followed by Manipur and UP.

Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh last week said around 25 crore households depend on manual scavengers to remove night soil from the latrines.

The practice continues in the country in spite of the implementation of several government schemes and a 1993 central legislation which made hiring manual scavengers punishable with imprisonment of up to a year.

Under the new law, however, employing or hiring manual scavengers can attract imprisonment of up to two years and a fine of Rs 2 lakh. The draft of the Bill states that governments or the local agencies will help in conversion of insanitary latrines into sanitary ones within nine months of the notification of the Act.

The National Commission of Safai Karmacharis will monitor the implementation of the Act.

"We are committed to eliminating manual scavenging. The new bill will be brought before the Parliament in monsoon session," Additional Solicitor General Haren Raval told a bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia last week.

Raval's response came with regard to a petition filed by Safai Karamchari Andolan, an NGO led by Christian activist Bezwada Wilson.

Earlier, the National Advisory Council had recommended that the implementation of the law on abolition of manual scavenging be monitored at the highest levels of the central and state governments.

The NAC decided to also monitor on a quarterly basis in order to ensure the end of the degrading practice in a time bound manner.

In 2012, a report on stigmatization of Dalits in access to water and sanitation in India was submitted to the UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation. The report includes observations on the human rights situation of manual scavengers across the country.