Parliament enacted “The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 (MS Act, 2013)” which became effective with effect from 06.12.2013. As per the provisions of the Act, manual scavenging is prohibited and no person or agency can engage or employ any person for manual scavenging from that date. Provisions of the MS Act 2013 mentions that contraveners shall be punishable with fine or imprisonment or with both.

There is no report of practice of manual scavenging in any districts. The Ministry has requested all districts either to declare themselves free from manual scavenging or upload the data of insanitary latrine and manual scavengers associated with it on “Swachhta Abhiyan” mobile app. However, no credible data has been uploaded on the app so far.

Data has been collated from 580 districts that have reported themselves as manual scavenging-free.

The Ministry is sending several communications at different level to states and districts and taking regular meetings with them to expedite their confirmation in this regards.

The nomenclature of the SRMS Scheme has been changed to “National Action for Mechanized Sanitation Ecosystem” (NAMASTE) and existing components of SRMS have been kept as component of NAMASTE Scheme to ensure rehabilitation of manual scavengers.

This information was given by Minister of State for Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment Shri Ramdas Athawale in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

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MG/PD

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