Context
Despite the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 (MS Act, 2013), which prohibits the practice of manual scavenging, it is prevalent across the country.
Background
Analysis
What is manual scavenging?
Threats
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Who is to be blamed?
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Government measures to end the practice
Dry Latrines in India
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Sewer-cleaning robots and machines such as the Bandicoot are slowly making their way to different municipalities and local authorities. |
What measures are required?
To assume that a ban on paper would abolish a centuries old practice, deeply vested in caste discrimination, is naive. The government with a strong will need to take the following measures:
Concluding thoughts
In a democracy like India, the existence of manual scavenging is a “national shame“, and a blot on the idioms of social, economic and political justice mentioned in the Indian constitution and a contemporary form of slavery. The manual carrying of human faeces is not a form of employment, but an injustice akin to slavery.
This situation needs to be corrected immediately. At first, the government should come up with the right data about the degree of its persistence. Afterwards, effective steps must be taken to tackle the issue with the required force.
Verifying, please be patient.