Unorganised Sector & Manual Scavenging in India | UPSC Notes

 Posted in GS Paper - 1, UPSC, Vulnerable Section of Society

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Unorganised Sector in India upsc

Delhi Jal Board — Mechanised machines to clean sewers | Recently many sewage workers died while doing their work.

Unorganised Sector Workforce

  • Portable smart ID cards for unorganised workers — will cater the needs of 40 crore workers 
  • Unorganised Workers ID Numbers (UWIN)
  • Unorganised Social Security Act, 2008 
    • First envisaged this provision 
  • UWIN — to every workers and include details of both nuclear and extended families
    • This will also give government the data for targeted policy formulation with a evidence-based backing. 
    • Digital India -> Inclusive India 
  • Identification of the unorganised workers through — Door-to-Door surveys or facilitation centres and camps.
    • SECC 2011 will be the basis of identification (as far as possible) together with assistance from the data of various Central Ministries 
  • Aadhar will be the basis of the entire network — Case verdict still pending in SC 

Manual Scavengers

Manual Scavenging in India upsc
Deaths related to the manual scavenging
  • Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers | Swachh Bharat @150 anniversary of MG 
  • National Safai Karamchari Finance and Development Corporation (NSKFDC) 
  • Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehab Act, 2013
  • Organise multi-stakeholders’ workshops and create awareness 
  • MoA with panchayat and municipal corporations to purchase sanitation related vehicles and equipments. 
  • Financial Assistance — easy loans, one time cash transfer 
  • Self Help Groups and community programmes. 

Manual Scavengers (Safaai Karamchari)

  • There are almost 14,000 manual scavengers in India as of December 2018 — MoSJ&E | >80% in UP alone
  • Manual scavenging refers to the unsafe and manual removal of raw (fresh and untreated) human excreta from buckets or other containers that are used as toilets or from the pits of simple pit latrines. The safe and controlled emptying of pit latrines, on the other hand, is one component of fecal sludge management.
  • #CaseStudy Voluntary Sector and Pressure groups — In Delhi, group of family members of the manual scavengers who had lost their life in doing this obnoxious work, have come forward to form a limited liability company in Delhi.
  • 2011 Census — about 8 lakh cases of manual scavenging across India 
  • Ministry of Social Justice — 300+ deaths in 2017 itself due to Manual Scavenging 
  • Statistics show that 80% of India’s sewage cleaners die before they turn 60, after contracting various infectious diseases.
  • The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act 2013 OR Manual Scavenging Act, 2013
    1. Eliminate the insanitary latrines.
    2. Prohibits Employment as Manual Scavengers & Hazardous manual cleaning of sewer and septic tanks
    3. Definitions of manual scavengers and insanitary latrines widened to cover not only dry latrines but other insanitary latrines as well.
    4. Offences are cognizable and non-bail able and attract stringent penalties. 
    5. Provide alternate jobs and rehabilitation of the workers.
    6. Vigilance/Monitoring Committees at sub-divisional levels 
    7. National Commission for Safai Karamcharis (NCSK) — to monitor implementation 
  • Constitutional Protection 
    1. A. 14 
    2. A. 16(2)
    3. A. 19(1)(g)
    4. A. 21
    5. A. 23
  • Poor implementation of the Act — (source — independent study by Rashtriya Garima Abhiyan (NGO))
    1. FIRs filed only in 35% of the cases and only 31% of families got compensation 
    2. Hardly anyone got any kind of alternate jobs from the government. 
    3. No protective gears and safety devices provided to anyone. 
  • Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan 
    1. The toilets built up (except twin pit toilets) — how to get them cleaned up? Any alternate mechanism to avoid manual scavenging? This has to be though upon. 

 

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