Order
Order
Impose Complete Ban on Manual Scavenging: Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of India has once again reiterated that the practice of manual scavenging must be completely eradicated from the country. The Court has also directed officials of major metropolitan cities to compensate families of individuals who died in the past three months due to manual handling of human waste from insanitary latrines, open drains, sewers, septic tanks, or pits, with ₹ 30 lakh within four weeks.
A bench comprising Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Aravind Kumar delivered this verdict on March 30 while hearing a Public Interest Litigation( PIL) seeking a complete ban on manual scavenging and hazardous cleaning activities. The bench had summoned officials from Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru for submitting unsatisfactory affidavits related to sewer cleaning and manual scavenging. Upon review, the bench found that even the revised affidavits used evasive language to downplay the issue.
The Court has instructed all officials to pay ₹ 30 lakh compensation within four weeks for all deaths under the " Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 ".
During the hearing, Justice Dhulia ordered Delhi Jal Board Director Pankaj Kumar Atre to submit a detailed affidavit clarifying when and how manual scavenging was stopped. Similarly, the affidavit submitted by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike was found to be inaccurate. However, based on government data, the Court noted that four deaths occurred in 2024 and three in 2023 due to such hazardous cleaning work. The bench warned that if the affidavits submitted in the next hearing are not satisfactory, FIRs will be filed.
The Hyderabad Water Board was also warned that deaths occurring during sewer cleaning and maintenance cannot be separated from the issue of manual scavenging. However, the Court appreciated Hyderabad’ s efforts in providing advanced cleaning machines. The West Bengal government has also been directed to pay ₹ 30 lakh compensation for such deaths.
The Supreme Court has previously issued several directives to prevent manual scavenging. In 2014, it had released comprehensive guidelines to end the practice and stated that no worker should be deployed for dangerous sewer cleaning tasks. The Court mandated that no person should be sent into a sewer line without proper safety measures and that violations of these rules would result in strict punishment.
In February 2023, the Court asked the Central Government to explain what steps it had taken to implement the 2013 law. The case is still ongoing, and the Court has warned that if satisfactory steps and responses are not provided, criminal cases will be registered against the responsible officials.
It is worth noting that in its historic 2014 verdict, the Supreme Court had issued numerous directives to stop manual cleaning of garbage and sewage and had instructed all states and union territories to implement the 2013 law, which aims to abolish manual scavenging and provide for the rehabilitation of those affected. �
50 Dalit Andolan Patrika | April 2025