“Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 (MS Act, 2013)” mandates survey of manual scavengers if any municipality or panchayat has reason to believe that some persons are engaged in manual scavenging within its jurisdiction. The Chief Executive Officer of the Municipality in case of urban areas and Chief Executive Officer of the Panchayat in case of rural areas are responsible to cause the survey as per the procedure prescribed under Sections 11 and 14 of the MS Act, 2013 and chapter III of the “Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Rules, 2013 (MS Rules, 2013)”.  In addition, any person working as manual scavenger can make a request under section 12(1) of the MS Act, 2013 in urban areas and under section 15(1) in rural areas to the concerned Chief Executive Officer for identification as manual scavenger either during the survey or any time thereafter. The Chief Executive Officer shall cause such request enquired into within 15 days to ascertain whether the applicant is a manual scavenger.

A National Survey of manual scavengers has been undertaken in 170 identified districts of 18 States to identify all those persons who were cleaning the insanitary latrines which have since converted into sanitary latrines under Swachh Bharat Mission or still working as manual scavengers in some areas. District Nodal Officers appointed by the State Government and District Coordinators nominated by the Social Organizations connected with safai karamcharis/manual scavengers are included in the survey teams of the National Survey.

Under Self Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers (SRMS) the identified manual scavengers are provided rehabilitation benefits which include onetime cash assistance of Rs.40,000/- each, training in livelihood skills with monthly stipend of Rs.3,000/- and bank loans upto Rs.15 lakhs with capital subsidy upto Rs. 3,25,000/-  for undertaking Self Employment Projects.  

This information was given by Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Shri Ramdas Athawale in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

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Sanjay Kumar/jk/SJ&E-/19-07-2018