A seminal draft law aiming to abolish the scourge of manual scavenging from across the country is expected to come up before the Union Cabinet for approval on Thursday. Once it gets the Cabinet nod, the government plans to introduce the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Bill, 2012 in Parliament during the ongoing Monsoon Session.
The government has drawn on its residual powers under the Union list (Entry 97) to frame the new legislation. It has done this as this will enable the Centre to ensure countrywide implementation of the proposed law by invoking the issue of human dignity rather than the issue of manual scavenging remaining merely a sanitation issue, said sources.
Under entry 97, the proposed legislation will also do away with the necessity of at least two state legislatures also passing it for it to become law. The existing was not binding on the states with sanitation being on the state list therefore just seven or eight states implemented it, said sources. The draft law also provides for stiff penalties, including imprisonment and stiff fines, in case it is violated, they added. It will also set a deadline for the conversion of dry latrines or their demolition at the owner’s cost.
The government is moving quickly on the proposed law after it was rapped on its knuckles by the Supreme Court on Tuesday for dragging its feet on enacting a law to abolish manual scavenging.
An estimated one to two lakh persons in the country continue to work as manual scavengers despite an existing law — the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993 — which was enacted to end the inhuman practice of people having to lift human excreta. The government has not been able to eradicate manual scavenging despite setting various deadlines for doing so over the years.
As per the ministry of social justice and empowerment’s estimates, there are 3,42,468 persons who need to be rehabilitated. But the number though could vary now that the government will be looking at the latest census figures, those of 2011 according to which 26 lakh insanitary latrines still exist in India.
The need to replace the existing law with a new one was felt for three reasons, said sources. One, the draft law has widened the definition of manual scavenging to include anybody who handles human excreta. The 1993 law describes manual scavengers as those “manually carrying human excreta” which it is felt is restrictive in nature as it excluded sanitation workers and those involved in cleaning railway tracks.