92% of workers cleaning urban sewers, septic tanks are from SC, ST, OBC groups

Government data reveals high representation of marginalized communities in hazardous sewer cleaning, with a focus on worker safety and empowerment.

In a first-of-its-kind attempt to enumerate people engaged in the hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks in India’s cities and towns, government data gathered from over 3,000 urban local bodies in 29 States and Union Territories shows that 91.9% of the 38,000 workers profiled so far belong to Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), or other backward class (OBC) communities.  

Of the profiled workers, 68.9% were SC, 14.7% were OBC, 8.3% were ST, and 8% were from the general category.

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Between 2019 and 2023, at least 377 people across the country have died from hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks, according to government data tabled in Parliament.  

The profiling of sewer and septic tank workers (SSWs) is being carried out by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment as part of its NAMASTE programme, a scheme to mechanise all sewer work and prevent deaths due to hazardous cleaning work. In 2023-24, this scheme was brought in to replace the Self-Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers (SRMS). 

The Union government’s rationale is that manual scavenging as a practice has ended across the country and what needs to be fixed now is the hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks. It draws this distinction based on a technical difference in how manual scavenging and hazardous cleaning are defined in the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act.  

The NAMASTE programme targets “workers directly associated with sewer and septic tank cleaning including drivers of desludging vehicles, helpers, machine operators and cleaners”, the Ministry says. Its goal is to profile such workers in a nationwide enumeration exercise, give them safety training and equipment, and offer capital subsidies that could turn sewer and septic tank workers into “sanipreneurs“, or sanitation entrepreneurs.