Manual scavenging in major metropolitan cities must immediately stop, the Supreme Court directed on Wednesday, drawing the line for municipal commissioners and chief executive officers of six major cosmopolitan cities, including Delhi and Mumbai, to comply with this order upfront and report compliance in two weeks.
The top court passed the order while monitoring its October 2023 judgment directing all states and Union Territories to take all steps possible to end the inhuman practice. The court was pained to note that despite its directions, the practice still prevailed as it cited an instance that took place a few days ago in Delhi, in which two people, who were in their late 20s, died while cleaning the sewer.
“A well-considered order was passed by us and look at what is happening. People are still dying… We are of the considered opinion that time has come now to pass directions,” remarked a bench of justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Aravind Kumar.
Picking up the metropolitan cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, the bench said, “We order that manual sewage cleaning and manual scavenging shall be stopped forthwith in all top metropolitan cities.”
The court further directed municipal commissioners or chief executive officers of each of the six cities to file an affidavit by February 13 indicating “how and when manual scavenging/sewer cleaning has been stopped” in these cities. The matter is now kept for hearing on February 19.
Senior advocate K Parmeshwar assisting the court as amicus curiae informed that most likely the affidavits will indicate that the order of the court has been fully complied with. His doubts stemmed from the data presented in court by the Centre last week indicating that out of 775 districts in the country, 465 have been declared “manual scavenging-free” while data on 310 districts is still awaited. This was based on responses received from states.
The court remarked, “If they are filing false affidavits, they are in contempt.” Parmeshwar pointed out that states are yet to comply with the October 2023 direction to conduct a survey, as modalities for doing so are still being evolved. Further, many states have recently set up state-level survey committees, he added.
Additional solicitor general (ASG) Aishwarya Bhati appearing for the Union government pointed out that sanitation is a state subject, and we have coordinated meetings at the central level with all chief secretaries and district magistrates to ensure compliance with the court’s orders. As the data on manual scavenging is based on the figures provided by states and UTs, she said, “It appears they have carried out survey while some are yet to respond.”
The top court’s October 20, 2023 ruling noted the inhuman conditions in which manual scavengers lived. The judgment said, “Ours is a battle not for wealth or for power. It is a battle for freedom. It is a battle for reclamation of human personality.” It directed the Centre and state governments to pay ₹30 lakh as compensation to the next of kin of those who die while cleaning sewers and sought “complete eradication” of manual scavenging across the country.
Its directions also required states to focus on use of mechanised devices for cleaning sewers and avoid individuals to be employed for this purpose. The judgment recorded that at least 347 people died while cleaning sewers and septic tanks in India between 2018 and 2022 with Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Delhi, accounting for 40% of these deaths, as per government data cited in the Lok Sabha in July 2022.
“After our order, there should have been some effect that no person is allowed to enter the sewer for cleaning. But we find two persons have died in the capital city of Delhi,” the bench said.
