Manual Scavenging: SC Hikes Compensation to Rs 30 Lakh, Orders Govt to Ensure Complete Ban
New Delhi: While directing the Union and state governments to ensure the complete eradication of manual scavenging, the Supreme Court on Friday, October 20, ordered the compensation in the cases of sewer deaths to be increased to Rs 30 lakh.
The court also said compensation amount in the case of permanent disability be made Rs 20 lakh, and Rs 10 lakh be given for other forms of disability.
A division Bench of Justice S. Ravindra Bhat and Justice Aravind Kumar issued 14 directions for the effective implementation of Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013. The orders also called for proper rehabilitation measures for victims and their families, including the disbursement of scholarships and the availability of skill development programmes.
According to Livelaw, the court, passing its verdict in a public interest litigation against the employment of manual scavengers, said, "Union and States are duty-bound to ensure that the practice of manual scavenging is completely eradicated. Each of us owes to this large segment of the population who have remained unseen, unheard, and muted, in bondage systematically trapped in inhuman conditions. The conferment of entitlements and placement of obligations upon the Union and States through the express prohibitions in the constitution and provisions of the 2013 Act means that they are obliged to implement the provisions in the letter and spirit."
The court went on to add, "It is not without reason that our constitution has placed great emphasis on the value of dignity and fraternity. But for these two, all other liberties are a chimera. All of us today who proudly bask in the achievements of our republic have to awake and arise so that the darkness which has been the fate of generations of our people is dispelled and they enjoy these freedoms and justice- social, economic, and political – that we take for granted."
The matter will be next heard on February 1, 2024, to take stock of the implementation of the court's directives.
According to the Union social justice and empowerment ministry, 339 people lost their lives while cleaning sewers and septic tanks in India between 2018 and 2023. As per the data presented before the parliament by the government, nine such deaths were recorded in 2023, 66 in 2022, 58 in 2021, 22 in 2020, 117 in 2019, and 67 deaths in 2018.
Manual scavenging is an outlawed practice under the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation (PEMSR) Act, 2013. The Act bans the use of any individual for manually cleaning, carrying, disposing of, or otherwise handling, in any manner, human excreta till its disposal.
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