Survey of manual scavengers begins in urban areas

Findings will be sent to Centre for working out a rehabilitation package

: Tamil Nadu has started its survey of manual scavengers in urban areas as mandated by the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Act, 2013.

The survey, which will cover 12 municipal corporations, 124 municipalities and 528 town panchayats, has two parts: submission of self-declaration forms in the offices of urban local bodies; and verification by officials of the claims and enumeration of any left-out manual scavenger.

The exercise is likely to be completed in a month, officials say, and the findings will be sent to the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment for working out a rehabilitation package.

Another significant mandate of the Act is that insanitary latrines be closed down or converted into sanitary latrines within six months. Officials of the urban local bodies will soon initiate action to comply with it.

Official position

Even as the State is trying to make the survey a smooth affair, it maintains that it neither engages manual scavengers nor promotes the practice.

Officials point out that it was during Jayalalithaa’s first term (1991-96) as Chief Minister that Tamil Nadu had adopted the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993, which helped to abolish dry latrines.

They do not agree with the findings of House-listing and Housing Census 2011 that there are 1.64 lakh insanitary latrines in urban parts of the State. The findings form the basis of the nationwide census. Of 89.3 lakh urban households in the State, night soil is disposed of in open drains in 1.33 lakh cases. As many as 17, 414 are serviced manually and 13,415 households are serviced by animals. Dismissing these findings, the officials say the data have been compiled from the submissions made by the public — and without corroboration.

2015 deadline

There is also a problem in the interpretation of terms like ‘insanitary latrines,’ they say. In the last three years, the government has been spending liberally to address open defecation, by creating sewer infrastructure and generating greater awareness. It has also set a 2015 deadline for eliminating the problem. The officials hope the findings of the survey, to be out in a few months, will back their position.