Law banning manual scavenging in December

In a significant move against manual scavenging, a new law banning the practice and awarding severe punishments to those acting in breach will come into effect from December 6.

The Centre has already intimated states to instruct the public and the government bodies about the new law, National Safai Karmacharies Commission Chairman M Shivanna told reporters here while speaking about the government’s preparations to implement “The prohibition of employment as manual scavengers and their rehabilitation act 2013” from next month.

Though a survey by the Centre to determine the number of manual scavengers in the country is still underway, Shivanna said the practice is still prevalent in many parts of the country.

The new law seeks to prohibit employing individuals as manual scavengers by prescribing stringent punishment, including imprisonment up to five years. Offences under the Act are cognizable and non-bailable and may be tried summarily.

The state governments should ensure that all urban local bodies and panchayats use machines to clean drainages or manholes instead of employing individuals. The new law also has provisions to rehabilitate manual scavengers and their family members, Shivanna said.

Under the new law, each user of an insanitary latrine is responsible for converting or demolishing it at his own cost, the failure of which will prompt the local authority to convert the latrine and recover the cost from him.

Each local authority, cantonment board and railway authority are responsible for surveying insanitary latrines within their jurisdiction. As per the 2011 census, 26 lakh insanitary latrines exist in the country, 98,536 of which are found in Karnataka while Delhi has 81,000 of them, he said.