Centre to roll out scheme to achieve ‘0 sewer deaths’ goal

NEW DELHI : With a goal of “ zero fatality”, the Centre will roll out from August 16 its ambitious plan to prevent deaths of sanitation workers engaged in hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks.
The scheme “National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem” (NAMASTE) will take off with a survey to identify workers engaged in hazardous cleaning . NAMASTE creates room for occupational safety training in collaboration with the urban local bodies for at least 1 lakh such workers and linking them with livelihood options, skilling and welfare measures across 500 cities and townships that will be covered under the scheme.
The scheme to be implemented by the ministry of social justice and empowerment and the ministry of housing and urban affairs will cover all sewer and septic tank workers who are identified under the survey.
The standing finance committee (SFC) led by secretary, social justice and emp owerment, R Subrahmanyam has given the approval to "NAMASTE" roadmap that will be implemented from 2022 to 2026 in cities and townships already notified under the Atal Mission for Rejuve nation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) that aims to equip cities with basic quality of life services.
Availalble data from 21 states and UTs with the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis shows tha t there have been nearly 954 sewer and septic tank-related deaths between 1993 to July 2021. However, as of now there is no centralised data of workers engaged in sewer cleaning.
The roadmap approved at the SFC meeting talks of a time-bound action plan in the selected cities and towns for mechanisation of cleaning of sewers, creating a system so that sanitation work is perfo rmed by skilled workers and no worker comes in direct contact with human faecal matter. The government plans to hold a review in 2024-25 to extend the scheme to other cities and rural areas.