Over 67 per cent of sewer and septic tank workers (SSWs) in India belong to the Scheduled Caste category, according to official data.

In a written response to a question in the Lok Sabha, Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale said that out of 54,574 validated sewer and septic tank workers profiled under the ‘National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem’ (NAMASTE) scheme, 37,060 are from the SC category.

The statistics further show that 15.73 per cent of the workers belong to the Other Backward Classes (OBCs), 8.31 per cent are from the Scheduled Tribes (STs), while only 8.05 per cent come from the General category.

In total, 57,758 workers across 33 States and Union Territories have been profiled, out of which 54,574 have been validated. Data integration for states like Odisha and Tamil Nadu into the central NAMASTE database is currently underway.

The NAMASTE scheme, launched in 2023-24 by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in collaboration with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), aims to ensure the safety, dignity, and empowerment of sanitation workers.

Under the initiative, various measures have been implemented to enhance worker safety and provide socio-economic opportunities: A total of 16,791 PPE kits and 43 Safety Devices Kits for Emergency Response Sanitation Units (ERSUs) have been distributed.

Ayushman cards for health insurance have been issued to 13,604 beneficiaries.

Capital subsidies totalling Rs 13.96 crore have been provided to 503 workers and their dependents for sanitation-related projects.

An additional Rs 2.85 crore has been released to 226 beneficiaries from the manual scavenger category for alternate self-employment projects.

To raise awareness on the hazards of unsafe cleaning practices, 837 workshops have been conducted since the scheme’s launch.

Efforts to mechanise sanitation work and reduce hazardous manual cleaning have also been prioritised. Under the Swachh Bharat Mission Urban (SBM-U) 2.0, MoHUA has sanctioned Rs. 371 crore to 26 states and UTs for the procurement of 2,585 desludging vehicles. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Mumbai:

Hoping to repeat the BJP’s success in Haryana, the ruling BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP coalition in Maharashtra, which is seen as facing an uphill battle in the Assembly polls expected to be held later this year, has reached out to two key groups – the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

On Thursday, the Maharashtra cabinet took several key decisions, including approving an ordinance giving constitutional status to the state Scheduled Caste Commission and giving its nod to a proposal urging the Centre to hike the income criterion for inclusion in the creamy layer among OBCs from Rs 8 lakh a year to Rs 15 lakh.

A statement from the office of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said the cabinet approved a draft ordinance to accord constitutional status to the Maharashtra State Scheduled Caste Commission. The ordinance, the statement said, would be tabled in the next session of the state legislature and added that 27 posts had been approved for the panel.

A proposal to request the Union government to increase the income limit for inclusion in the ‘creamy layer’ category to Rs 15 lakh per year from the current Rs 8 lakh was also passed. 

A non-creamy layer certificate, stating that the family income of a person is below the prescribed limit, is needed to get reservation benefits in the OBC category.

Lok Sabha Learnings?

The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance in the state, which comprises the Congress, the Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP and the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena, had stunned the ruling coalition, known as the Mahayuti, by winning 30 of Maharashtra’s 48 Lok Sabha seats. The BJP, whose tally was 23 in the last general elections, was reduced to just nine while the Ajit Pawar-led NCP managed to win only one seat.

One of the reasons attributed to the Maha Vikas Aghadi’s big victory was that it managed to get its caste combinations right and Thursday’s cabinet decisions are seen as a way of making a dent in that. The decisions are also being read as a means of blunting the Congress and the INDIA alliance’s attack on the NDA during the Lok Sabha elections that it wanted to end reservations and was seeking over 400 seats to do so. 

The BJP eventually managed to win 240 constituencies while the NDA was comfortably over the majority mark of 272 seats with a tally of 293. 

Ahead of the elections in Haryana, where the BJP was perceived to be on the back foot after ruling the state for two consecutive terms, the state government had hiked the creamy layer ceiling from Rs 6 lakh to 8 lakh. The decision is seen as having contributed to the party managing to defy exit poll predictions and beat anti-incumbency to win 48 seats, two more than the majority mark in the 90-member Assembly.