New Delhi: More than 40 manual scavengers have died in the last six months, as per data compiled by a civil society organisation, but there has been no mention of their plight in the Union budget.
The Telegraph newspaper reported that Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA), a civil society organisation fighting for the eradication of manual scavenging, collated data on the death of manual scavengers between February 1 and July 23 when Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the full budget for 2024-25.
According to the data, 43 manual scavengers died during the period, which was between the vote-on-account and Union budget presented this year by Sitharaman.
Congress Rajya Sabha member Jebi Mather Hisham raised concerns about the recent death of a 47-year-old sanitation worker in Kerala and underscored the persistent problem of manual scavenging nationwide.
“While he was trying to clean the waste from a garbage-led canal in Trivandrum city, he got slipped. The gruelling 46 hours of search and rescue operation in heavy rains, ended with a devastating discovery of his lifeless body floating amidst the garbage,” he said.
He noted that the tragic death of sanitation workers is a “stark reminder” of how we fail in this matter. “The sanitation workers, without any protective gears or without any proper training, always face life-threatening situations and undergo very, very sad situations where they are put to difficulties. Despite there being a ban on manual scavenging, this dangerous practice still continues putting the sanitation workers under constant toxic fumes and hazardous waste,” stated Hisham.
Twelve members of opposition parties associated themselves with the Congress MP’s demand for compensation for the family of the deceased sanitation worker and the implementation of an effective urban waste management plan.
As per the newspaper, the government launched the National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem (Namaste), which replaced an earlier scheme aimed at rehabilitating manual scavengers. Initially, Rs 97 crore was allocated for this scheme in the 2023-24 budget, but this amount was later reduced to Rs 30 crore in the revised budget. However, this year, the allocation has been increased to Rs 117 crore.
The SKA’s national convener Bezwada Wilson asserted the welfare of manual scavengers was not a priority with the government.
Describing the funds allocated as “very paltry”, Wilson told The Telegraph, “The finance minister did not take the name of manual scavengers once in her speech as if their lives do not matter”.
“Manual scavenging is prevalent on a large scale in states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Bihar. But the government is not ready to accept it,” he said.
He stated that the SKA regularly submits memoranda to the ministry of social justice and the National Human Rights Commission, seeking compensation for the families of sanitation workers who die on duty and emphasising the need for a comprehensive action plan for their rehabilitation. However, according to Wilson, the ministry has never responded.
Highlighting that manual scavengers were mostly Dalits, he criticised the government for failing to recognise those who die in sewers and septic tanks as manual scavengers and noted the absence of a system to track such deaths. “Every time there is any such incident, the first reaction from the government is to disguise it as an accidental death,” he said.
Wilson also condemned the government for failing to regulate local authorities, which do not provide necessary safety equipment or training to these workers.
