With workers continuing to lose their lives while cleaning drains despite a ban on manual scavenging, the Delhi government will soon consult experts in order to make cleaning of drains and septic tanks mechanised.
Meeting next week
Social Welfare Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam said on Friday that he will take a meeting of top officials from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, the Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology, the Delhi Technological University, the municipal corporations of Delhi and the Delhi Jal Board next week.
Latest casualty
On Sunday, a worker hired by a contractor died while cleaning a drain in north Delhi’s Wazirabad, becoming the latest casualty in a list of similar cases over the past few years. After five workers died cleaning a septic tank in Moti Nagar last September, the Delhi government had issued instructions to officials to identify and rehabilitate manual scavengers, as well as shift towards mechanical cleaning of drains and tanks.
“There have been some improvements when it comes to mechanical cleaning of drains, but as long as there is even one death from cleaning of drains, we cannot say we have succeeded. The DJB is in the process of procuring 200 sewer cleaning machines. But, there will be congested areas where these vehicles cannot reach. So, I have called a meeting of experts next week to discuss solutions,” Mr. Gautam said.
He added that the State monitoring committee formed under the Prohibition of Employment of Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, will meet in February to review the progress of rehabilitation of manual scavengers.
During the first meeting of the committee, which is supposed to meet every six months, on September 18, 2018, Mr. Gautam said the government had identified 45 manual scavengers and retrained them for other jobs.
“The world is talking about going to the moon and Mars, so why should we have people dying while cleaning drains. We need to stop manual cleaning of drains completely in 2019,” he said.
