Shri Thaawarchand Gehlot Chaires 5thmeeting of Central Monitoring Committeeto Review Implementation of‘Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers’

Shri ThaawarchandGehlot, Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment chaired the 5th Meeting of the Central Monitoring Committee to review the implementation of the "Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013" (MS Act, 2013) here today. Shri RamdasAthawale, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, Smt. Latha Krishna Rao, Secretary of the Ministry and senior officer were present in the meeting. The meeting was attended by the Chairman, National Commission for Scheduled Castes, Chairman, National Commission for SafaiKaramcharis, Members of Parliament, non-official members of the Committee, representatives from the Central Ministries/Departments and the State Governments / Union Territory administrations and Social Workers working for the welfare of manual scavengers/sanitation worker.

This important Central Act was enacted by the Parliament in September, 2013 and has come into force in December, 2014. It aims at complete elimination of the manual scavenging in its various manifestations and comprehensive rehabilitation of the identified manual scavengers.Government is keen to eradicate the manual scavenging on a time bound basis for which the State Governments have been urged to implement the provisions of the MS Act, 2013 in letter and spirit.The Meeting recommended simplification of the survey guidelines to fast rack identification of manual scavengers.
The Review meeting discussed the issues of manual scavengers in India and the MS Act, 2013 to ensure that all the persons who are cleaning un-decomposed septage manually are identified and listed as manual scavengers.It also discussed the implementation of a Self Employment Scheme for the Rehabilitation of identified manual scavengers under which onetime cash assistance; skill development training and loan subsidy are provided for rehabilitation of identified manual scavengers.

The members were informed that National SafaiKaramcharis Finance & Development Corporation (NSKFDC) has held number of awareness camps to motivate the manual scavengers and their dependents to undertake skill development training so that they are suitably equipped for employment on sustainable basis or start their self employment ventures.