The Parliament enacted the “Manual Scavenger Prohibition and Rehabilitation Act, 2013 (MS Act, 2013)” which came into effect on 06.12.2013. According to the provisions of the Act, manual scavenging is prohibited, and no person or agency may hire or employ any person for manual scavenging as of that date. Provisions in the MS Act 2013 mention that offenders will be punished with a fine or imprisonment or both.
There are no reports of manual scavenging practices in any district. The ministry has asked all districts to declare themselves exempt from the hand scavenger or to upload the data of the associated sanitation latrines and hand scavengers to the ‘Swachhta Abhiyan’ mobile app. However, no credible data about the app has been uploaded so far.
Data was collected from 580 districts that reported no manual scavenging.
The Ministry is sending several communications at different levels to states and districts and is organizing regular meetings with them to expedite their confirmation on the matter.
TThe nomenclature of the SRMS scheme was changed to “National Action for Mechanized Sanitation Ecosystem” (NAMASTE) and the existing components of SRMS were kept as components of the NAMASTE scheme to ensure the rehabilitation of manual scavengers.
This information was given by the Minister of State for the Ministry of Social Justice and Emancipation Shri Ramdas Athawale in a written reply to Rajya Sabha today.
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MG/PD
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