What is the issue?
- There were instances of death while cleaning septic tanks, in Delhi and Odisha, recently.
- This calls for addressing the shortfalls in implementation of the manual scavenging law.
What does the law mandate?
- Manual scavenging is regulated by the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013.
- Under this, no person, local authority or agency should engage or employ people for hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks.
- Mechanised cleaning of septic tanks is the prescribed norm.
- Safety gear for rare instances when human intervention is unavoidable is prescribed.
- A violation can be punished with two years of imprisonment or fine or both.
- It also prohibits the construction of insanitary latrines.
- Each occupier of insanitary latrines shall be responsible for converting or demolishing the latrine at his/her own cost.
- The District Magistrate and the local authority shall be the implementing authorities.
What are the policy shortfalls?
- The workers in Delhi were asked to perform the task in violation of the manual scavenging Act.
- Apparently, many requirements of worker safety provided in the law are often ignored.
- A well-funded programme as the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA) pays little attention to this aspect of sanitation.
- More tanks are being built in rural and urban areas as part of the drive to construct toilets.
- But manual scavenging law is not being enforced, and there is no fear of penalties.
- Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation had itself acknowledged that in rural areas, mechanical pumps to clear septic tanks are not available.
- In the southern States, sanitation has expanded along with urbanisation.
- But it has brought with it a higher number of deaths as workers clean septic tanks manually.
- E.g. Tamil Nadu recorded 144 fatalities of workers engaged for septic tank cleaning in the past three years.
What is to be done?
- Mere assertion by the Centre that it was pressing State governments to prosecute violators is ineffective.
- There is a need for political will and social pressure to avoid any further deaths.
- If the law on manual scavenging is to be effective, the penalties must be uniformly and visibly enforced.
- It is equally important for State governments to address the lack of adequate machinery to clean septic tanks.
- Toilet designs proposed by the government include those in which fully composted waste must be removed from pits every two years.
- The Centre must ensure that this does not become an avenue to oppress members of some communities, reflecting social inequalities.
- The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan should make expansion of the sewer network a top priority.
- It should come up with a scheme for scientific maintenance that will end manual cleaning of septic tanks.
Source: The Hindu