Mechanised Sewage Cleaning Is Now An Option But People Still Want Manual Scavengers To Clean Their Toilets & Tanks

On September 10, five men cleaning a sewer at a high-end residential complex in West Delhi, died an avoidable death. Police investigation revealed that the workers were not wearing any safety equipment while cleaning the septic tank. The victims inhaled toxic fumes and died of asphyxiation.

Within a week, on September 15, another incident followed. A 37-year-old man died while cleaning a sewer after inhaling toxic gases in Dwarka¡¯s Dabri Extension. The FIR stated that the victim, Anil, was lowered into the 20-25-feet deep sewer with a rope around his waist. The rope snapped, plummeting him inside.

Anil was not provided any safety apparatus and the rope was not equipped to bear his weight.

Like many others in the past, he also suffocated to painful death.

And the ill-spate of deaths does not seem to phase out anytime soon, courtesy public and government apathy.

In spite of the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993 and the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, manual scavenging is a dark, casteist, gut-churning and deeply inhuman reality.

The Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993 says that ¡°no person shall engage in or employ or permit to be engaged in or employed for any other person for manually carrying human excreta.¡±

BCCL

According to the Supreme Court¡¯s 2014 order, entering sewer lines without safety gears should be made a crime and for each sewer death, Rs 10 lakh compensation should be given to the family of the deceased.

It is noteworthy that the Supreme Court, while pronouncing the compensation order, on the hindsight accepted that manual scavenging, a practice outlawed more than 25 years ago, still exists. While the government and civic authorities are perpetually on a denied mode about the reality of manual scavenging, the data speaks otherwise.

The staggering number of manual scavengers is the best worst-kept secret

Manual scavenging is banned and is conveniently considered non-existent. However, according to the 2011 Census, there are over 2.6 million dry toilets in India. In 2013, the government recognised 12,742 manual scavengers in 13 states, with 82 per cent of them in Uttar Pradesh. The number has been severely criticised for flagrantly underrepresenting the actual figures. Presence of 740,078 households where waste and excreta is cleared out by manual scavengers were recorded in the 2011 Census. The number excludes septic tanks, public sewers and railway tracks, which are mostly cleaned by manual scavengers. Furthermore, around 21 lakh households dispose of their wastes in dry latrines or drains, which are again cleaned by manual scavengers.

The Socio-Economic Caste Census of 2011 totalled more than 1.82 lakh families that have at least one member of the family deployed as a manual scavenger.

In June 2018, an inter-ministerial task force counted up to 53,236 people working as manual scavengers in the country, a four-fold rise in numbers from the official records.

While the numbers are far more believable than the earlier ones, the data represents only 121 of the more than 600 districts in the country.

BCCL

Since January 1, 2017, one person has died every five days, on an average, while cleaning septic tanks and sewers, according to the numbers collected by the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis (NCSK).

The number is mostly based on newspaper reports and statistics supplied by a few state governments. Officials, however, still admitted that the data does not correctly represent the actual numbers.

Why not deploy machines to clean sewers?

While the government claims that it is finding alternative ways to clean sewage systems, the ground reality shows that little investment has been done to eradicate the evil of manual scavenging. For the country that has announced ambitious projects like bullet trains and a manned mission to space, it is a matter of utmost disgrace that its sewers are still cleaned by humans.

Sohail Gupta, founder of Sureflow, has built robotic systems based on the concept of ¡®no shut-down¡¯ and ¡®no-man entry¡¯ for mechanically removing sludge from tanks and basins.

¡°Clients are always looking for sasta rasta rather than understanding the benefits of robotic cleaning. They see manual labour is available to them at hardly any cost as compared to the robotic systems. The only units that have shown some acceptance are power plants and refineries like HPCL, BPCL and NTPC. Most of the times clients are excited to learn about a new technology but when it comes to execution, they want cheap solutions¡±, says Gupta.

The sewers and industrial plants are extremely acidic. In a phosphoric tank, acidic sludge eventually accumulates at the bottom of the tank to the height of 1 metre to 1.5 meters. This is when the plant would ask for a clean-up job. The acid and the sludge have a pH of 0 to 1 which means it is highly acidic and is extremely dangerous for human entry.

Sohail adds: ¡°practically these jobs are not for humans. Even if one is near such plants, they require proper masks and other protective equipment. However, in most cases clients still use manual labour to do this risky and a potentially fatal job. The labour would put on a safety suit and go inside a huge tank with suction pipes and shovels and remove the sludge. It is not uncommon for a labour to face breathing issues, skin irritation and other long-term problems.¡±

The cost and value of human life is negligible in the country and when cheap options are available, no one wants to switch to robotic cleaning, which of course costs more.

In efforts to eradicate the age-old practice of manual scavenging, Kerala has started to replace men cleaning up sewer holes. ¡®Bandicoot¡¯, the robot developed by the startup firm Genrobotics, will be used for cleaning sewer holes.

The Delhi Jal Board launched the first batch of its mechanised sewer cleaning machines. Around 200 customised machines are expected to be deployed to help in tackling manual scavenging. The machines also plan to create a model that can be replicated by ¡®Dalit entrepreneurs¡¯. Dalit and former manual scavengers will be given preference in selection.

¡°200 separate tenders have been finalised and a work order will be issued in the next board meet. We have given first priority to the kin of deceased manual scavengers, manual scavengers and people from Scheduled Castes¡±, DJB vice-chairman Dinesh Mohaniya told Times of India.

Cities like Hyderabad have introduced mini jetting machines to eliminate manual scavenging and improving the working and living conditions of the scavengers.

BCCL

However, even with the mechanisation of sewer cleaning, the practice and measures still remain caste-driven and most of these plans die a slow death on papers.

It is clear that technologies are available to clean up India¡¯s sewers robotically but heavy reliance on cheap labour is a deterrent for actions to take off.

With this, the hypocrisy of the Swachch Bharat Abhiyaan stands exposed. How can a campaign, that has been tagged as ¡®successful¡¯ be successful, when men and women clean sewers and dry latrines? On one hand, the campaign aims at protecting the dignity of women who are forced to defecate in the open due to lack of toilets at home, yet compels women from lower castes and sub-castes to work as toilet cleaners.

Even as the country celebrated Swachch Bharat anniversary on October 2, with students all around carrying placards for a photo-op and ministers lauding the almost-hollow efforts. The drive has seen crores of toilets built across the country but there has been a serious lack of willingness to adopt new sanitation practices. The absence of cleaning, unavailability of water and shoddy construction of toilets are among the factors that contribute towards an unclean and unsanitary nation.

Indira Khurana, PhD, Director of Research and Innovation, Safai Karmachari Andolan, wrote for State of India¡¯s Environment 2018, saying, ¡°Eradication of manual scavenging needs a surgical strike. A mission for total eradication of manual scavenging and rehabilitation of manual scavengers needs to be set up. The Centre must spell out a detailed, time-bound and transparent action plan with a monitoring and accountability framework, even if sanitation is a state subject.¡±