Lok Sabha Question No. 2726 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-08-02
Subject: Manual Scavengers
Ministry: SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EMPOWERMENT
Asked by: Girish Chandra

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EMPOWERMENT LOK SABHA

UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.2726 TO BE ANSWERED ON 02.08.2022

## MANUAL SCA VENGERS

## 2726. SHRI GIRISH CHANDRA:

Will the Minister of SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EMPOWERMENT be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the manual scavengers in the country are working not oly as contract, migrant and action taken by the Government to solve the problem, State-wise;
- (6) whether more than twenty per cent of manual  scavengers were never  registered under the Prohibition of Employment and Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers (PEMSR) Act and if so, the reasons therefor; and
- (c) the number of manual scavengers people who died during hazardous cleaning of sewers and tanks during the last five years, State-wise? septic

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EMPOWERMENT (SHRI RAMDAS ATHAWALE)

(a) (6): Sir: There is no report of people currently engaged in manual scavenging as defined under Section 2 (1) (g) of the "Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and No,

Manual scavenging is prohibited with effect from 6.12.2013. No person or agency can engage o employ any person for manual scavenging from the above date:

Under the Swachh Bharat Mission; since October 2, 2014, more than 10.99 crore sanitary toilets have been constructed in rural areas and over 62.65 lakh in urban areas and insanitary toilets have been converted into sanitary toilets. This work made & huge contribution towards ending the practice of manual scavenging: After receiving reports from the social institutions working in this field, about continuation of this practice, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has launched a mobile app "Swachhata Abhiyaan' on 24.12.2020 to capture the data of insanitary latrines still existing and manual scavengers associated with them. person can upload the data of insanitary latrines and manual scavengers o the mobile app. Thereafter; the data is verified by the concerned district administration: However, not a single insanitary latrine has been confirmed sO far: Any

(c): There is no report of deaths due to manual scavenging: However, 330 persons have died due to accidents while undertaking hazardous cleaning of sewer and tanks during the last five years. State-wise details are given at Annexure: septic

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## Annexure referred in reply to part c) of the Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 2726 for answer on 02.08.2022 regarding Manual Scavengers.

Details of death of persons in sewers and septic tanks during the last five years (2017 to 2021)

| S No   | Name of StatelUT   | Total Number of sewer death   |
|--------|--------------------|-------------------------------|
|        | Andhra Pradesh     | 13                            |
| 2      | Bihar              | 2                             |
| 3      | Chhattisgarh       |                               |
| 4      | Chandigarh         | 3                             |
| 5      | Delhi              | 42                            |
| 6      | Gujarat            | 28                            |
| 7      | Haryana            | 36                            |
| 8      | Karnataka          | 26                            |
| 9      | Kerala             |                               |
| 10     | Maharashtra        | 30                            |
| 11     | Madhya Pradesh     | 4                             |
| 12     | Odisha             | 2                             |
| 13     | Punjab             | 14                            |
| 14     | Rajasthan          | 13                            |
| 15     | Tamil Nadu         | 43                            |
| 16     | Telangana          |                               |
| 17     | Uttar Pradesh      | 47                            |
| 18     | West Bengal        | 19                            |
|        | Total              | 330                           |