188 people died while cleaning sewer and septic tanks: Govt

There were no report of people dying while cleaning human excreta, said Ramdas Athawale. (Representative Image)

No death has been reported due to engaging in manual scavenging but 188 people have died while undertaking hazardous cleaning of sewer and septic tanks since 2019, the Lok Sabha was informed on Tuesday.

Responding to a question in Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale said an amount of Rs 266.16 crore has been spent by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment under the Self Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers (MS)’ since 2013-14.

According to the data shared by Athawale, 116 deaths due to hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks occurred in 2019, 19 in 2020, 36 in 2021 and 17 in 2022.

"No death has been reported due to engaging in manual scavenging (which is lifting of human excreta from insanitary latrines as defined in Section 201 (g) of the MS Act 2013). However, 188 persons have died due to accidents while undertaking hazardous cleaning of sewer and septic tanks during the last three years and current year,” he said in a written response.

Responding to another question, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment A Narayanswamy said the ministry has requested the registrar general of India to include transgender persons as a separate category for the next population enumeration.