Bengal govt initiates steps to ensure zero sanitation deaths
Kolkata: The Bengal government has initiated steps for complete mechanisation of the sanitation ecosystem to ensure zero sanitation deaths, thereby assuring the safety and dignity of the workers associated with sewer and septic tank cleaning.
In the first phase of the initiative, 49 municipalities in four districts — South 24-Parganas, North 24-Parganas, Howrah and Hooghly — will be covered.
“Our aim is to bring the transition across all urban local bodies (ULBs) from manhole to machine hole through 100 per cent mechanisation of sewer and septic tank cleaning operations. The target group of the scheme is sewer and septic tank cleaning workers (SSWs) employed by ULBs, parastatal bodies, private sanitation service organisations and other private operators,” said a senior Nabanna official.
The official said that the civic bodies have already started the survey to identify the number of SSWs in their respective jurisdictional areas, following which they will upload the verified details on a digital platform. The survey will help the state to have the gap analysis based on which the requirement of mechanisation will be ascertained.
The initiative is part of the National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem (NAMASTE) scheme issued by the Union Social Justice and Empowerment ministry. 70 types of equipment/machines will be available as part of the scheme that will provide capital subsidies on loans to SSWs for procurement of sanitation-related vehicles/equipment through Swachhata Udyami Yojana (SUY). The provision of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) kits and health insurance coverage will also be provided to the SSWs.
As per SUY guidelines, there need to be 20 SSWs against a 1-lakh population. The move assumes significance in the backdrop of more than 400 people being killed while cleaning septic tanks and sewers in the country between 2018 and 2023, as per a written reply in the Parliament in December 2023.
In the context of Bengal too, there have been deaths associated with manual scavenging — the latest being three labourers from Nadia dying of asphyxiation while undertaking septic tank construction work in an apartment at Trisulia in Odisha’s Cuttack in September this year.
In August, two workers from Malda in Bengal were killed while another was injured when they got stuck in a 30-feet deep sewerage in the Daudpur Kothi locality under the Ahiyapur Police Station area in Muzaffarpur district of Bihar.
