The Prohibition of Employment of Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation (Amendment) Bill-Part II

Charter of Demands and Recommendations for the The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation (Amendment) Bill, 2020

Written by Pragya Akhilesh|New Delhi|September 17, 2020

Although we know that this is not the first time a Bill on the practice of manual scavenging has introduced proposals of mechanisation of sewer cleaning, it is quite unknown that as early as 1956 the Kaka Kalelkar Commission emphasised on the immediate mechanisation for the cleaning of the latrines to eradicate this ‘sub-human’ level of practice. This was 7 years after the Barve Commision that suggested finding out measures to improve the lives of the manual scavengers in India. Subsequently, many Committees (Central and State) including the Pandya Committee sought recommendations to regulate the service conditions of the manual scavengers. One important aspect of the Pandya Committee was the “inspectoration of the enforcement machinery with regards to existing regulations.” There have been many important policy and legal frameworks in India demanding a similar aspect of other previous frameworks and Schemes. This has resulted in a handful of similar schemes that have failed in reaching their target because there is hardly any materialistion on the ground. One of the examples of this kind of loophole is the Kashi Ram Shahri Awas Yojna which was a politically motivated overlap of the core of the Valmiki Ambedkar Malin Basti Awas Yojna in Uttar Pradesh, aimed to provide sheltering opportunities to the people below poverty line categorisation. 

There is an immediate need to redefine manual scavenging with an emphasis on the categorisation of sanitation workers. Here, the definition of manual scavenging has to be broadened from manually cleaning of human excreta to the ‘manual collection, source separation, storage, transportation, transfer, processing, treatment and disposal of solid waste and the proper handling, treatment and disposal of liquid waste/wastewater or sewage. The Amendment Bill should take into consideration the composition of the hazardous waste including bio-medical waste which the different categories of sanitation workers are forced to scavenge ‘manually’ and is no less than the task of scavenging of the human excreta. The categorisation of sanitation workers into Faecal Sludge Handlers, Sewage Treatment Plant Sanitation Workers, Toilet Sanitation Workers (community, public, school, domestic household further classified into dry/wet handling), Public Transportation Site Sanitation Workers (railway, roads), Sewer and Drain Sanitation Workers, Septic Tank Sanitation Workers, Waste Recovery Sanitation Workers (household-community-landfill further classified into resource recovery sanitation workers), Operational Sanitation Workers, Sanitation-Waste Intersection Workers and further into manual scavengers (Rehabilitation Research Initiative, 2019) from the waste management perspective and not the ‘type of waste scavenged’ will further help the manual scavengers in India. It has to be noted that it is only after categorisation of the sanitation workers that proper framework for the eradication of manual scavenging can be developed.

Another reason for the lack of implementation of the existing laws relating to the manual scavengers is the gap between the integration of the sanitation campaigns and schemes emphasising on the infrastructure part and workers front which leads to the complete disregarding of the rights of the workers employed in these infrastructures. While the budget of these campaigns (like Swachh Bharat Abhiyan) is huge, the declaration of a city/settlement being Open Defecation Free and building of the Toilets is given more importance than understanding of the complete integration of the sanitation system which includes the structural maintenance of these Toilets. Even today, some of the rural settlements in India lack proper water supply because of which people are forced to manually remove excreta from the very Toilets which have become a landmark of ‘good hygiene’ and ‘successful sanitation’ practices.

Both the The National Scheme of Liberation and Rehabilitation of Scavengers (NSLRS, 1992) and Self Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers (SRMS, 2001) have integrated objectives of skill development and provisions of financial assistance. These rehabilitation schemes do not refer to an integrated methodology of rehabilitation which includes objective, subjective and evaluative rehabilitation (Rehabilitation Research Initiative, 2015). Because of this, the entire process of training a manual scavenger with skill sets in combination with imparting an entrepreneurial understanding becomes a lengthy procedure as there is no intermittent hand-holding in the due process of rehabilitation. Moreover, the complexity of the loan procedure through different schemes of NSKFDC further alienates the manual scavengers from taking loans for the process of restoration and rehabilitation. In recent studies it has also been found that the Rehabilitation scheme, SRMS “has had significant gaps noted between budget estimates, revised estimates and actual expenditures.” (Accountability Initiative, CPR, 2019). 

The Amendment Bill should draw from the many health assessment reports of the sanitation workers and the manual scavengers in public domain (Human Rights Watch, WaterAid etc.) to establish concrete measures for the protection of the health of the manual scavengers. There is an immediate need for proper guidelines that tackle the “health of a manual scavenger in its centrality.” This should not only include trials and testing of protective gears but should provisions for better health care facilities, insurance cover, pension plans and regulations on preventive and social medicine education for the manual scavengers.

A few existing guidelines in the previous Bills regarding compensations in a case of sewer death should be revisited with stricter enforcement of the implementation on the ground. The Amendment Bill should seek evaluative reports from numerous bodies on provision of compensation in all previous cases of sewer deaths. It shall also enquire the current grounds of assessment and delivery of compensation with the central question of ‘why certain cases have not received compensation till now?’

The most important aspect of the Amendment Bill should be highlighting ‘accountability shortfalls’ in cases of sewer deaths. The ‘Contractual employment system’ needs to be reassessed. It has to be also noted that unregularised contractual hiring makes the eradication of manual scavenging more difficult than ever. This makes the sanitation workers more vulnerable. There have been cases where a particular sanitation worker has never entered a septic tank before but the contractual employers have been found to force the sanitation workers to do so without any protective gear or prior understanding of the problematic nature of this work. The Amendment Bill should also address a proper mechanism for easy legal help in both cases of death and legal redressal and consultation otherwise. The Amendment Bill should also highlight the importance of Trade Unions, Self Help Groups, Co-operatives and Pressure Groups in the fight against eradication of manual scavenging by giving incentives to the sanitation workers who are a part of an umbrella of protection. This will help in safeguarding the interest of the workers as they will understand their rights, fair wage structures, policies, entitlements, restoration and rehabilitation measures etc. 

Part III ‘Final Report & Signatories’ (18 September 2020)

While there have been central laws for the eradication of these practices it is very important to understand that the many recommendations by individual organisations have kept challenging the lack of proper guidelines. They have also repeatedly called for a stricter measure for the implementation of the many existing Acts and Schemes. These organisations are at the centre of the dialogues related to manual scavenging and the introduction of the Bill without their recommendations is uncalled for. There is a need for an inclusion of the charter of demands of these organisations immediately. Rehabilitation Research Initiative will submit its Objectives Resolution, Charter of Demands and Final report & Signatories to parliament on 17th September 2020.