NATIONAL ACTION FOR MECHANISED SANITATION ECOSYSTEM

In the budget speech of the finance minister , introduction of a new initiative was mentioned. It aimed at 100% mechanisation of the cleaning of sewers & septic tanks.  It is officially named as, the “National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem (NAMASTE). It will be a centrally sponsored scheme, as a joint initiative of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. 

It is aimed at reducing the fatalities of sanitation workers to zero, avoiding contact with human faecal matter, deployment of skilled staff at the work, access to alternative livelihoods for sanitation workers, etc.

Scheme also includes the identification & enumeration of sewer and septic tank workers. This scheme mentions about the identification & enumeration of the informal and contractual workers engaged in hazardous cleaning operations.

The aim of zero fatalities, was a long awaited initiative found its mention in the NAMASTE scheme. So the scheme is seen with  the optimism and hope in the wake of the staggering numbers of death in last few years. While the actual number of deaths  might be higher due to the under-reporting of such cases. 

The scheme also found its relevance, in a context where the union minister for social justice and empowerment, while answering to a parliamentary question, informed that, between 2015 and 2020, the total number of sewer-related deaths was 340. The Social Justice Ministry informed Lok Sabha on March 14, 2023 informed that, a total of 1,035 people have died while undertaking hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks across India since 1993. 

The mechanisation envisaged by this scheme, treats the issue of sewage cleaning as merely a technological issue, overshadowing its social dimension. 
The scheme mentions about, replacing the ‘manholes’ with ‘machine holes’. But there is no mention of the social stigma associated with the work of sewage cleaning, while there is association of impurity of the caste with the sewage cleaning and all other forms of manual scavenging.  
Those engaged in “sewage cleaning & manual scavenging” are predominantly Depressed caste groups, who face social exclusion and violence across the country owing to their caste identity. “No place in the world sends people to gas chambers to die,” the Supreme Court had said on sewer deaths in 2019, asking the Centre why protective gear was not provided to sanitation workers. 

According to Bezwada Wilson, head of the sanitation workers’ movement, Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA),one death of sewage worker is being reported every third day. In the NCR, as per official data, 45 per cent of the population is still without sewage facilities. 

The cleaning work of septic tanks in unauthorised colonies, industrial areas, housing societies is outsourced to private contractors who are scarcely held accountable by the authorities. Even though the State governments of Delhi and Maharashtra have deployed sewer suction pumps to unclog drains, sewer-related deaths have not stopped. The majority of toilets in the country, are not linked to sewer lines. Their septic tanks require manual cleaning. 

There is no mentions for social security, health, and children’s education of sewage cleaning workers, in the NAMASTE scheme.

 The 100% mechanisation presumed in the scheme, may bring  unemployment for sanitation workers after deployment of machines, so it was expected to have detail mentions of  creation of alternative employment for them, in the scheme. 

Already the sanitation work has been outsourced by local body governments through contractualisation and informalisation. So  along with social securitisation , the rehabilitation of sanitation   workers has been a popular demand  of  the community. 

One more challenge in the implementation of the scheme will be, the removal of the social stigma through 100% mechanisation . One wonders whether the suggested mechanisation would alter the rigid mindset of the caste-ridden society. 

The NAMASTE scheme was launched last year, subsuming the already existing Self Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers (SRMS), with Ministry officials saying that since manual scavenging (humans collecting human waste by hand) was no longer practised in India.

Under the SRMS, the Social Justice Ministry had identified a total of 58,098 eligible manual scavengers in a nationwide survey conducted with help of State governments in 2018.

Official government data showed that the Ministry had identified 58,098 beneficiaries for the rehabilitation scheme for manual scavengers, all of whom had been handed out the one-time payment of ₹40,000 each by 2020.

However, as of last year’s, data showed that just about 18,800 had signed up for the skills training component of the scheme, and just 2,051 had been cleared for loans under the scheme’s subsidies to start alternative businesses. 

As part of the NAMASTE scheme, the guidelines for which are close to being finalised, the Social Justice Ministry intends to first enumerate the number of people engaged in hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks across 500 AMRUT cities (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation & Urban Transformation) & then proceed with its plans. The government is expected to spend ₹360 crore over the next four years on the scheme.

The NAMASTE scheme, among other things, provides for capital subsidies to sewer cleaners on the purchase of sanitation machinery, training of workers with a stipend amount, and loan subsidies with capped interest rates on sanitation equipment. 

NAMASTE allocation stands out in the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment’s allocation, the lion’s share of its ₹12,847.02 crore budget for this year has gone to the Post Matric and Pre Matric Scholarship schemes for Scheduled Castes (SC, ₹6,359.14 crore), in keeping with last year’s Budget estimates. 

Parts of this project, already in the works for the past two years, have led to municipal commissioners being declared as the Responsible Sanitation Authorities (RSAs) and Sanitation Response Units (SRUs) being set up in 200 cities, where the national helpline for addressing sanitation needs (14420) has also been operationalised.

Other benefits under the scheme will include capital subsidies of up to ₹5 lakh on sanitation machinery costing up to ₹15 lakh and interest subsidies on loans, where interest rates will be capped between 4-6% for the beneficiaries, with the government taking care of the rest of the interest.

In addition, the scheme also provides for training the workers in the use of these machines, during which time a stipend of up to ₹3,000 per month will be provided. 

The scheme will also provide for sanitation workers to train for and go into any of the approved list of alternative occupations in sectors like agriculture, services, electronics assembling, handicrafts and so on. These provisions are similar to the ones that the SRMS already provides for, save for one component — a one-time cash transfer of ₹40,000.