On October 25, 2024, Goa declared itself free of manual scavenging. Further down south, The Hindu reported that the state of Kerala has also declared itself free of manual scavenging on October 28, 2024. 

Ironically, Goa’s announcement came nine months after the state witnessed a manual scavenger death when a 28-year-old man lost his life to asphyxiation after falling into a septic tank in Mapusa on January 12. Kerala made the declaration a month after Joy, a sanitation worker, died in the state’s capital city of Thiruvananthapuram after falling into the Amayizhanjan canal while cleaning the drain. Just a month before that, two workers died in Kozhikode while cleaning a restaurant sewage tank.

Manual scavenging is banned in India by law, but these reported cases of manual scavenger deaths show that the practice still exists. In that case, how are states able to claim they are manual scavenging-free? The answer lies in a digital survey by the Union government that is underway in several states, which asks for proof to the workers that they do manual scavenging, including photos.

The other major legal loophole is the definition of ‘manual scavenging’ and ‘hazardous cleaning’. Though septic tanks and sewers have increased in numbers, the cleaning of these is essentially the same work. However, it comes under the category of ‘hazardous cleaning’ and is legally permissible if workers are given ‘protective gears’.

The surveyors, that includes municipalities and local bodies, are directed to upload clear, solo photographs of manual scavengers engaged in this dehumanising labour, following a set of exhausting guidelines. Manual scavengers are expected to stand straight and look directly into the camera for an ideal shot. The survey, without mincing words, can only be termed a hogwash, enabling the states to fudge data to prove that manual scavenging does not exist in the country.

“Despite an elaborate process outlined on paper, the government is not able to identify manual scavengers because they are not willing to. The government should come out of its colonial mindset and denial and acknowledge that manual scavenging is prevalent in the country. Only then can it be eradicated. Anybody who talks about this is seen as an enemy. But we are just trying to uphold the dignity of the country and its citizens,” said activist and Safai Karamchari Andolan (SKA) national convener Bezwada Wilson.

An elaborate procedure with problematic requirements

The Union government has so far conducted two national surveys – in 2013 and 2018 – and a self-declaring survey via a mobile application to identify manual scavengers is underway. 

On October 20, 2023, a Supreme Court bench comprising Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Aravind Kumar observed that the data collected by the government is “inconsistent and contradictory.” “Different numbers have also been stated by the government in the Rajya Sabha on different dates and the Union’s affidavit before this court. It is also unclear and inconsistent on the number of manual scavengers identified,” the court said, ordering a fresh national survey.

The responsibility was then entrusted to the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis (NCSK), the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC), the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST), and the Secretary, the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. They were directed to draw modalities for the conduct of a national survey to be ideally conducted and completed in the next year. “To ensure that it does not suffer the same fate as the previous ones, appropriate models shall be prepared to educate and train all concerned committees,” the court said.

Consequently, the National Safai Karamcharis Finance and Development Corporation (NSKFDC), which operates under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, devised a digital survey. The survey began earlier this year, and the NSKFDC released an elaborate user manual for it.

The manual says that the 2013 and 2018 surveys did not follow the 2013 Act and rules, rendering them moot. “The survey was conducted in the statutory towns and did not extend to rural areas. This has resulted in manual scavenging being presented as an urban problem. The discrepancies in data points result in inefficient enforcement of legislation and schemes formulated for the relief and rehabilitation of manual scavengers. Considering the aforementioned, it was decided that the nationwide survey covering all the states and districts is a must to identify and come up with a robust database of manual scavengers & related households.”

In order to prevent a similar fate for this survey, the officials decided it would be conducted in all districts across the country for “insanitary latrines existing as on date and manual scavengers currently engaged with the same.”

An official from Kerala’s Kozhikode, who chose to remain anonymous, told TNM that there are three main stages in the process: a survey, conducted by individuals engaged through local authorities; checking by officers who are tasked by local authorities; and validation by local authorities and officials.

The survey relies on a mobile application designed to streamline data collection. The app allows officials to document information district and state-wise, with photographs of individuals, their identity cards, and geo-tagged locations. Importantly, access to the app is restricted to designated officials.

If no manual scavengers are identified in a district, the District Magistrate must declare this as "NIL information" through the app. This declaration is then published in two local newspapers, with one being in the vernacular language. A 15-day window is provided for anyone overlooked during the survey to come forward for inclusion.

Before the survey begins, local authorities, enumerators, and district-level committees are trained on how to use the app and complete the questionnaire. Additionally, the survey’s commencement is publicised using print and audio-visual media, outdoor advertisements, and newspaper notices to ensure awareness and participation.

With more than 60 questions, the survey is divided into four broad categories: general information and job details section, which includes name, contact details, socioeconomic background and educational status; status of benefits, which is about the funds, if they have received any and if they possess any additional skills; family member section; and bank details.

In the first section, one of the inputs that stands out is “a photo of the person engaged in manual scavenging.” The surveyors are directed to upload clear, solo photographs of manual scavengers engaged in this dehumanising labour, with a “clean background,” accompanied by a set of meticulous photographic guidelines. These instructions include ensuring proper lighting, positioning the subject in a clean, uncluttered background, and capturing their head, shoulders, and waist in the frame.

The manual scavenger, a person relegated to the most degrading and dangerous tasks, is expected to stand straight, look directly into the camera, and maintain a distance of three feet for an ideal shot. Suggestions like switching on lights or retaking blurry photos starkly highlight the detachment of the survey’s creators from the brutal realities of manual scavenging.

Tamil Nadu state convener of Safai Karamchari Andolan (SKA), Samuel Velanganni, said that most workers are scared to reveal themselves. "On the ground, the reality is that the officials have threatened the workers with arrest if they reveal their jobs though there is no law to back this. Out of fear, no worker will come forward and accept that they are doing this job.”

He also pointed out the ridiculousness of the demand for photographs. “How inhumane is this act of asking a manual scavenger to give a clean pose? We are fighting so that no person should do this work for a single time, but on the other hand, the government wants them to do the work so that they can get a photo. Demanding ‘clean backgrounds’ or ‘good lighting’ while documenting marginalised and oppressed lives underscores the absurdity of the procedure and reduces the lived experiences of these workers to mere clinical documentation that is devoid of dignity or context.”

Union’s claims, legal loophole 

For the past two years, the Union government has been claiming in the Parliament that there are no manual scavengers in India, only  ‘hazardous cleaning workers’. TNM had earlier reported on this, highlighting that the Safai Karamchari Andolan (SKA)— a movement working towards the eradication of manual scavenging in the country—recorded 339 deaths of manual scavengers in 2022-23. The Union government has maintained that 377 deaths have occurred in the last five years (2019-2023) due to ‘hazardous cleaning’ of sewers and septic tanks.

This year, in Parliament, the government said that the Social Justice Ministry had launched a mobile app called "Swachhata Abhiyaan" in December 2020 to capture existing data on insanitary latrines and manual scavengers associated with them. While stating that a total of 6,256 cases were uploaded on the mobile application from 114 districts, the Ministry claimed that all of them were verified and none were “found to be credible.”

While the Ministry for Social Justice claimed that there is no manual scavenging in India currently, two surveys conducted in 2013 and 2018 which the SC called inconsistent, identified 58,098 ‘erstwhile manual scavengers’. According to the data on the southern states, Karnataka had the highest number of erstwhile scavengers - 2,927; followed by Andhra Pradesh - 1,793; Kerala - 518 and Tamil Nadu - 398.

Manual scavenging has been banned across India since 2013, by way of passing The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013. However, governments keep getting away by claiming that there are no manual scavengers because of a loophole in the definitions. 

According to section 2(g) of The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, a “manual scavenger” is any person who is employed or involved in “manually cleaning, carrying, disposing of, or otherwise handling in any manner, human excreta,” be it in an insanitary latrine, open drain or pit into which the human excreta from the insanitary latrines is disposed of, or on a railway track or in any other spaces or premises.

It must be noted that though the act of cleaning sewers and septic tanks technically falls under the category of manual scavenging, it is not taken into account due to the narrow definition provided above, which does not include a sewer or a septic tank that is separately defined under section 2(d): “hazardous cleaning” of a sewer or septic tank is defined as “manual cleaning” by a worker without the employer providing them with protective gear, other cleaning devices, and without following safety precautions.

It doesn’t just end here. If a person is engaged or employed to clean human excreta with the help of “devices and using protective gear,” such person will not be deemed a ‘manual scavenger’. However, it is not clear what the devices or protective gear entail here.

The second and major difference is concerning the punishment. Engaging a manual scavenger is punishable with imprisonment up to one year, and/or a fine of up to Rs 50,000 fifty thousand. 

Engaging a person in the hazardous cleaning of a sewer or septic tank is also punishable with imprisonment for up to two years or with a fine which may extend to Rs 2,00,000. Any subsequent contravention can be punished with imprisonment up to five years, and/or a fine which may extend to Rs 5,00,000.

The other difference is that those identified as manual scavengers are entitled to rehabilitation, which includes one-time cash assistance, a residential plot and financial assistance for a house, at least one member of the family will be given training in livelihood skills and paid at least Rs 3000 per month during that training period, and at least one member of the family should be given concessional loan for an alternative occupation.

“Even though both a hazardous cleaner and a manual scavenger deal with human excreta, the statute only penalises hazardous cleaning and does not provide for subsequent steps for rehabilitation of hazardous cleaners,” the SC previously observed.

Kerala SKA convener Sundarraj Pappathi explained why the governments prefer to use the term ‘hazardous cleaning’ over ‘manual scavenging’. “Though both are essentially the same work, manual scavenging is illegal and hazardous cleaning is legalised manual scavenging. According to the law, if you give a worker protective gear and lower them into a septic tank or sewer, it is legal. This gear is often gloves and masks. Also, manual scavengers are legally entitled to cash assistance and rehabilitation but hazardous cleaning workers are not,” he said.

Read TNM’s award-winning series ‘Exposing Manual Scavenging’ here.