what is manual scavenging? what are the effects made by the government to eradicate this practice?
Answers
Manual scavenging is a term used mainly in India for the manual removal of untreated human excreta from bucket toilets or pit latrines by hand with buckets and shovels. It has been officially prohibited by law in 1993 due to it being regarded as a caste-based, dehumanizing practice (if not done in a safe manner). It involves moving the excreta, using brooms and tin plates, into baskets, which the workers carry to disposal locations sometimes several kilometers away.[1] The workers, called scavengers (or more appropriately "sanitation workers"), rarely have any personal protective equipment. Manual scavenging is a caste-based occupation, with the vast majority of workers involved being women.
The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, forbids the employment of any person for the task of manual scavenging by any agency or individual. As picking up untreated human excreta is harmful to one's health and hygiene, the Act seeks to completely ban the practice.
- Manual scavenging refers to the highly discriminatory and classist practice of making other humans mainly from lower castes to pick up trash including fecal matter.
- This was a very problematic approach to assert dominance in the class defined times.
- The government realising the graveness of this matter has set in several laws and opened up several job opportunities such that people from lower socio-economic means will not have to take up such jobs just because it is their class.
- The government has also led the state parties and rural parties to ensure reservations in colleges and jobs such that no one is indulging in such discriminatory practices.