Efforts to amend laws and regulate sewer cleaning systems have been taken up by the Indian government, with recent additions to the existing plans and proposed bills.
The first and foremost thing that is being planned is to amend the existing Manual Scavenging Act, followed by a change that was much needed, mechanised cleaning of the sewers. “Machine-hole” has replaced the previous term “Man-hole .
As a part of this initiative, the Government has recently come up with a “challenge” called ‘Safaimitra Suraksha Challenge’ for all the states to make sewer-cleaning mechanised by April 2021. And if due to any emergency or if manual scavenging is unavoidable, then the person must be provided with oxygen tanks and safety gear.
Under this challenge, prize money in various categories totalling to Rs 52 crore will be offered. An independent survey will be conducted in May 2021 to access the states and results will be declared on August 15, 2021.
As per the officials, urban local bodies, state capitals and smart cities are eligible to participate. They said the 243 cities that are eligible to participate will be split into three sub-categories based on population: up to 3 lakh, 3-10 lakh and over 10 lakh, with prizes ranging from Rs 8-12 crore.
Swachh Bharat Mission is a top priority mentioned by 15th Finance Commission, funds allocated for smart cities and urban development would be sufficient to support this challenge. Hence, the money needed to shift to mechanised cleaning would not be a constrain as said by Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Puri.
In collaboration with MTNL, a toll free helpline number will also be made available 24X7 for assistance and to report violations.
Official records show that manual scavenging has led to 376 deaths over the past five years, including 110 in 2019 alone — a jump of 61 per cent from 2018. Manual scavenging is gut-wrenching. A number of deaths, especially of the male members of the society, happen due to drowning which is utterly painful.
