Give priority to the plight of sanitation workers
Lax implementation and no credible data hinder the evolution of welfare schemes
Over the past seven days, six people lost their lives in the national capital region while cleaning sewers after inhaling toxic gases, says the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis (NCSK), a statutory body set up by an Act of Parliament for the welfare of sanitation workers. Clearly, the law banning employment of human labour to clean sewage tanks is toothless. In theory, no person, local authority or agency can hire people for hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks. The Employment of Manual Scavenging and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993, was amended in 2013 to include a ban on hiring people to clean sewers. But according to a reply by the central Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in the Lok Sabha in December last year, more than 300 people died while working in septic tanks in 2017 alone.
Magsaysay award winner and NCSK founder, Bezwada Wilson, says one big obstacle before evolving policies for the welfare of septic tank workers is the lack of credible data. There are no official numbers available on those employed in sewer and septic tank cleaning as opposed to those engaged in the relatively less hazardous cleaning of dry latrines, open drains and single pit toilets. Also, since most of those employed to do the cleaning of septic tanks are hired on a casual basis, contractors seldom bother to provide gas masks, safety harness belts and helmets to them.
Experts say the biggest reason why the mechanised cleaning of septic tanks, the prescribed norm, remains only on paper, is lax enforcement. If the law is to be effective, the penalties — less than 10 arrests have been made across the country according to Mr Wilson — have to be stricter and even-handed. Casual workers who endanger their lives for as little as ₹300 to clean septic tanks don’t seem to be a priority either with the law enforcement agencies or politicians. This is a blot on the record of a country running the largest public cleanliness programme in the world.