By
Arun Srivastava
The
Swachh Bharat Mission ostensibly aims to achieve safe sanitation for all by
2019 but even with the arrival of the year, the mission has not acquired a
pan-India shape. Worst still, it has become a mechanism to usurp public money.
From the babus to big ticket NGO operators, many have been looting government
funds allocated for the project. In fact, the babus have been virtually
auctioning the plan to make money by putting projects on sale areas wise and
the NGOs usurping crores of rupees on the name of social service.
The
contractors involved in the plan in a particular area may be small, but they
operate in the style of organised contractors. Usually the beneficiary has to
cough up some part of the expense. In some places the toilets are not even
constructed and exist only on paper.
The
most baffling part is the involvement of big agencies and NGOs in building
toilets. They get the order from the government agencies for constructing
toilets in bigger areas. They have been celebrating the birth day of Narendra Modi
to impress the officials for getting the work. While the government and the
agencies involved in the mission claim to have accomplished the mission and
managed to put a stop to open defecation, the fact remains that it has failed
to make any significant dent.
Ever
day a staggering 1.7 million tonnes of fecal waste is produced in the quasi
urban areas. And this does not include the rural areas where open defecation
continues. The scavengers either dump it in the local drains or nearby canals.
The
government does not seem to have any well -defined programme or policy for
achieving open defecation free cities, districts and villages. Politically
conjured up programmes are only for short term gains. The government talks of
fecal sludge management system (FSM). But this could be successful only when
the government has detailed statistics of the households. Even in middle order
cities no attempt has been made to strengthen and introduce traditional
sewerage networks.
The
most important role in the FSM chain is that of scavengers. From extraction and
collection to transportation and disposal, they are key to an effective FSM
system. With appropriate training the scavengers can be empowered to own and
run FSM businesses; like cooperatives of the agriculture sector. The government
can encourage to use the FSM system to manufacture fertilizer. It can make
available the wherewithal and resources to work them on cooperative style.
People
have been shouting at the top of their voice that open defecation and manual
scavenging have been abolished in India. But the fact remains that it is still
continuing to dictate our social life. According to former member of the
National SafaiKaramchari Commission Jagadish Hiremani, manual scavenging is
still prevalent in Karnataka, where more than 2, 000 families are involved in
the practice.
He
says that the state government has failed to utilise the funds provided by the
National Commission for the rehabilitation and welfare measures to the
safaikaramcharis in the state. Out of the total Rs. 500 crore released by the
commission to Karnataka during 2012-13 and 2013-14, only Rs. 10 crore had been
spent, he said.
The
Safai Karamchari Andolan (SKA), which is working towards the eradication of
manual scavenging, has documented about 1,500 deaths since 1993. It is a shame
that some of the big NGOs, which have been earning crores of rupees on the plea
of rehabilitating the scavengers, have not been carrying out any research to
find out the living condition of these people. They have also not been bothered
about the death of the scavengers inside the drains while cleaning the waste.
The
Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI) made a presentation to
the Delhi government in August 2017 to carry out a project that would help in
the eradication of manual scavenging to a large extent. The DICCI would also
engage with the state financial bodies to secure loans to purchase machinery
for scavengers going down in the drains for cleaning. The most unfortunate part
has been the callous attitude of the government towards the scavengers dying
inside the drains. Even the prime minister’s office, which launched the scheme
with huge fanfare, has not come out with any concrete step to check it and help
the scavengers. World over, sewers and drains are cleaned using suction pumps
and high-pressure water jets.
According
to the 2011 Socio Economic Caste Census, 180,657 households are engaged in
manual scavenging for a livelihood. The 2011 Census of India found 794,000 cases
of manual scavenging across India. Maharashtra, with 63,713, tops the list with
the largest number of households working as manual scavengers, followed by
Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tripura and Karnataka. It is most prevalent in
Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan.
In
March 2014, the Supreme Court had declared that there were 96 lakh dry latrines
being manually emptied but the exact number of manual scavengers is disputed.
The situation could go from bad to worse. Under the Swachh Bharat Mission,
millions of septic tanks are being built in rural India. By 2019, some 30
million tanks and pits would have been dug along the Ganga. If the Central,
state and local sanitation programmes do not take up fecal sludge management as
a priority, the onus will shift to the lowest rung of the society to clean
millions of dry toilets built with tearing hurry. Manual scavenging is not only
a caste-based but also a gender-based occupation with 90 per cent of them being
women.
It
is imperative that the government turns its attention away from toilet
construction and explore ways to empty pits without human intervention. An
inter-ministerial task force last year counted manual scavengers in India and
landed with a number as high as 53,236, which is four times the number written
in the 2017 official records. But the data was only collected from 121
districts in the country. The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment told
the Lok Sabha in 2017 that the country saw 300 manual scavengers die that year.
Of these, 12 deaths occurred in Delhi and 140 in Tamil Nadu, which was the
highest. There are 740,078 households across the country where human excreta is
removed manually. The Socio-Economic Caste Census 2011 said that there are
182,505 families in rural India engaged in manual scavenging.
The
apathy of the government and the NGOs towards eradication of manual scavenging
is also a brutal violation of human rights. Manual scavengers are exposed to
the most virulent forms of viral and bacterial infections that affect their
skin, eyes, and limbs, respiratory and gastrointestinal systems. According to
the Environmental Sanitation Institute, Gandhi Ashram, the majority of
scavengers suffered from anemia, diarrhea and vomiting. Right to development is
also violated. (IPA Service)
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