Give sanitation staff their due as health workers

The pandemic has brought to the fore many societal problems. One among them, given scant attention, is of manual scavengers, an extremely marginalised community even among the Dalits — the lowest in the caste hierarchy. During the lockdown, their engagement in the demeaning work of cleaning up humanity’s trash through generations has got highlighted.

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The tasks of sanitation workers and health workers, like doctors, are complementary and their purposes identical. Consequently, those working in the sanitation industry should also be recognised as ‘health workers’. It is in these terms, therefore, that they ought to be classified and acknowledged. It’s high time the government acknowledged their contribution to society and gave them their due.

However, the role and work of sanitation workers in our everyday lives remains unrewarded and tragically under-appreciated. The popular perception of sanitation work and the sentiments that inform much of the people’s mental imagery relate it to its demeaning casteist links.

Among other things, there is little general awareness of the fact that sanitation workers are preventive or so-called ‘frontline’ health workers who play a profoundly important part in keeping us all well. It is high time that the state as well as ordinary citizens recognise this and acknowledge that it is in the interests of both public justice and private reasonableness to support the cause of sanitation and that of its providers.

After years of neglect, it was only in 2013 that the Prohibition of Employment of Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act was passed which laid down several protective and beneficiary measures for the manual scavengers. The Act made it compulsory for them to wear the protective equipment while manually cleaning sewers and septic tanks. It also laid down the mechanised cleaning of septic tanks as the prescribed norm. For these rights, the safai karamcharis had been fighting for a long time.

As early as 2003, the safai karamcharis, in a civil writ petition, said that Safai Karamchari Andolan & Others vs. Union of India had demanded that the practice of manual scavenging be closed. The 2014 Supreme Court observations on this writ petition was in their favour. The court declared that entering sewer lines without safety gear was a crime even in an emergency situation. Moreover, the persons included in the final list of manual scavengers were directed to be rehabilitated according to the provisions of the 2013 Act. The court also directed that a compensation of Rs 10 lakh be paid to the dependent family members of all persons who had died during sewerage work (manholes, septic tanks) since 1993.

Its non-implementation, however, has belied all these instructions. In fact, in the absence of political will and social pressure, more lives are likely to be lost because more tanks are being built in rural and urban areas as part of the drive to construct toilets under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

It is necessary that state governments address the lack of adequate machinery to clean septic tanks. The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, in its manual of 2016 on toilet design, has noted that in rural areas, mechanical pumps to clear septic tanks were not available.

In fact, data released by the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis has stated that since 2017, on an average, one sanitation worker died every fifth day while cleaning a sewer or a septic tank. It also stated that the number of manual scavenger deaths was highest in Haryana followed by Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, and Gujarat. It is important that the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan makes the expansion of the sewer network a top priority and comes up with a scheme for scientific maintenance that will end manual cleaning of septic tanks.

Clearly, not much had been done despite the recognition of the problem. It is necessary that the 2013 law and the Supreme Court directions on this matter be implemented in letter and spirit.

Now the pandemic has given us an opportunity to move forward to not only emerge as a clean and dignified nation, but also break the casteist transmission of sanitation work from father to son. We have been presented with an opportunity, however modest, to try and eliminate untouchability inflicted upon an extremely marginalised community. Some concrete steps need to be taken to improve their lot.

The only way forward is for all sanitation work to be fully mechanised; no sanitation worker to be hired as a contract labourer and a minimum wage of Rs 20,000 per month should be guaranteed as that alone is viable for securing the bare necessities of life.

Comprehensive health insurance for sanitation workers and their families must also be guaranteed and they should be eligible for all allowances that are covered under the description of ‘hazardous work’. All sanitation workers must be eligible for pension benefits. Importantly, all these workers must be provided accommodation, just as the police personnel, as they both work to keep the citizens safe. Children of these workers must also get preferential admission to Kendriya Vidyalayas, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas and Sainik Schools especially to equip them for other professions rather than their father’s calling.

The steps proposed above might seem like a social and cultural revolution, but they are no more than a product of the realisation that the incalculable benefits of sanitation can be secured from a sensible perception of justice and self-interest being mutually reinforcing virtues. Schemes such as Smart City and Swachh Bharat can easily finance these proposals. It only needs resolve to see them through.

Finally, as hygiene and wellbeing are complementary, even identical, so is the tasks of sanitation workers and doctors is complementary, and their purposes identical. Consequently, the sanitation workers must be classified as ‘health workers’, along with doctors and nurses. This would go a long way in protecting their dignity.