Latest news with #NationalActionforMechanizedSanitationEcosystem
DW
22-07-2025
- Politics
- DW
In India, caste still defines who cleans cities – DW – 07/22/2025
People from the lower rungs of India's strict social hierarchy say they're trapped doing jobs like cleaning sewers because of historical discrimination. At least 77% of India's 38,000 sewer and septic workers are from the Dalit community, according to data from India's National Action for Mechanized Sanitation Ecosystem (NAMASTE). Dalits are a historically marginalized group, comprising the lowest level of India's centuries-old discriminatory caste hierarchy. NAMASTE is an organization that claims to protect sanitation workers, while promoting the use of mechanized cleaning machines and securing subsidies to reduce manual labor. In 2020, the Indian government announced measures to end the hazardous practice of manual scavenging — the removal of human excrement from toilets, septic tanks and sewers by hand — by August 2021. The initiatives were part of the "Clean India Initiative," launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government that aimed to enforce laws banning manual scavenging. However, despite the ban, this dirty work goes on, largely carried out by Dalits. Despite their efforts to obtain other municipal jobs for which they are qualified, many Dalits claim to have been denied other work, effectively trapping them in cleaning roles. "The government refuses to acknowledge the social reality that India is fundamentally a caste-based society," said Bezwada Wilson from Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA), a advocacy group in India seeking an end to manual scavenging. "What they claim is less about facts and more about their own opinion," Wilson told DW. "Telling manual scavengers to buy machines themselves under the NAMASTE scheme is a cruel form of 'rehabilitation,'" said Wilson. "Instead of ending caste-based hiring, it simply repackages it under a modern name — NAMASTE is caste discrimination disguised as progress." To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Dalits are usually given the most menial and hazardous jobs, which are deemed "impure" by religious and social standards. These jobs are passed down through generations, trapping families into a cycle of social exclusion and economic deprivation. Even among the Dalits, the Valmiki sub-caste, historically faces harsher socio-political and economic exclusion, suppression and violence. "Caste is seen as a result of one's past deeds, condemning scavengers to a life of cleaning others' waste," Vivek Kumar, a professor of Sociology at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, told DW. "Patronizing it by calling it a 'spiritual duty' or 'noble service to society' masks the harsh reality of discrimination," Kumar added. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Dalits often experience segregation in housing, education and social interaction. The association between caste and sanitation work limits Dalits from moving up the social ladder — forbidding their access to other jobs and opportunities. Kumar said that caste has not withered away with modernity or urbanization. Instead, it has spread into urban centers and entered modern institutions, such as industry, civil society, polity and bureaucracy. "Until caste acts as a cultural capital for the 'upper castes' we cannot eliminate it," he said. Kumar believes that "dignity of labor" must be taught from primary to higher education to move past the outdated belief of scavenging work being tied to one's birth. "Once the connection between caste and scavenging is broken and the job is fairly paid, we'll see other communities stepping in these jobs," Kumar concluded. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
The Hindu
26-05-2025
- General
- The Hindu
Thrust on modernising solid waste disposal and sanitary worker safety, says CM
The government is prioritising modernisation of solid waste disposal measures and improving the health safety of sanitary workers while maintaining a clean Puducherry, Chief Minister N. Rangasamy said on Monday. Inaugurating a skill development workshop for sanitation workers on preventing hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks in urban local bodies under the joint auspices of the Oulgaret Municipality and Genrobotic Innovations firm, Mr. Rangasamy said identifying a landfill for accumulating solid waste collected from across the city had been a vexed issue as residents objected to dumping of garbage anywhere near their neighbourhoods. This had necessitated the advocacy of a zero-waste policy with an industry-scale and technology-driven approach to solid waste disposal and efforts were now aimed at the same-day disposal of collected and segregated waste at the Kurumbapet landfill. The workshop was held under the NAMASTE (National Action for Mechanized Sanitation Ecosystem) central sector scheme of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment aimed at ensuring the dignity, safety, and social and economic empowerment of sanitation workers, specifically those engaged in cleaning sewers and septic tanks. Noting that many sanitation sector workers died young, the Chief Minister said in cognisance of the hazardous nature of their work, the government has been providing jobs to the next of kin on compassionate grounds of employees of municipalities and commune panchayats. Soon, jobs would be provided on compassionate grounds to the next of kin from around 200 families of the Pondicherry Municipality, he said. The Chief Minister said the underground sewerage network was being expanded and the process of treating-discharging sewage has reached more areas. An estimated 90% of the work is over. Work is also under way to repair blockages in the underground sewers in the city. When such blockages occur and are repaired, there is a risk of toxic gas attack on the sanitation workers. The administration was keen to adopt new innovations such as robotic machines to sewage extraction and removing blockages in underground sewers to reduce health risk to humans, he said. Mr. Rangasamy also called for adequate protective gear to be provided to sanitary workers who are engaged on a contractual basis. The municipal authorities need to ensure this, he said. K. Lakshminarayanan, Public Works Minister, AK Sai J. Saravanankumar, Adi Dravidar Welfare Minister, Prabhat Kumar Singh, Managing Director, National SafaiKaramchari Finance Development Corporation (NSKFDC), A. Suresh Raj, Oulgaret Commissioner, and Rashid K., Director of Genroboic Innovations, participated. Later, during the awareness sessions on the occupational hazards involved in cleaning sewage and septic tanks. a demonstration was given on engaging a robot for cleaning operations, the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and the safe use of PPE equipment such as gloves, face mask and toxic gas leak detector.
