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Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Dr Virendra Kumar reviewed the NAMASTE, SEED and PM-AJAY schemes and held an interaction session with their beneficiaries at the Dr Ambedkar International Centre in New Delhi.
Under NAMASTE, the measures listed were profiling of sewer and septic tank workers, provision of Personal Protective Equipment kits, health insurance, safety training and Emergency Sanitation Response Units, with the scheme extended to cover waste pickers and integrate them into formal solid waste management.
The SEED scheme for Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic communities was described as going beyond financial assistance to sustainable livelihoods, skill development and self-reliance, with special emphasis on women from DNT communities.
On PM-AJAY, the Minister highlighted the launch of the scheme's mobile application and portal in May 2026, moving implementation from paper-based processes to real-time digital workflows.
The Minister also administered a 'Pledge Against Drug Abuse' to participants.
Ensure the safety, dignity and sustainable livelihood of sanitation workers and eliminate hazardous manual cleaning
Key: Launched in July 2023 by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in convergence with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, with an outlay of ₹360 crore for 2022-23 to 2025-26, implemented through the National Safai Karamcharis Finance and Development Corporation. Its stated outcomes are zero fatalities in sanitation work, no direct contact between workers and human faecal matter, all cleaning done with safety devices, work performed by skilled workers, strengthened Emergency Response Sanitation Units and empowerment through Self-Help Groups. It has since been extended to waste pickers.
Provide economic and social empowerment to DNT, NT and SNT communities
Key: Launched in February 2022 by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. Its components cover free coaching for competitive examinations, health insurance for families, livelihood support to community clusters and financial assistance for housing — going beyond assistance to skill development and self-reliance, with particular emphasis on women.
Social, economic and educational empowerment of Scheduled Caste communities
Key: A centrally sponsored scheme launched in 2021-22 with three components — the Adarsh Gram component for developing SC-majority villages, grants-in-aid for State and district-level projects on skilling and employment, and the hostel component for hostels in educational institutions. Its mobile application and portal, launched in May 2026, act as a central digital database and coordination platform across all three components.
Provide concessional credit and skill development to safai karamcharis, scavengers and their dependants
Key: The implementing agency for NAMASTE, and the institutional channel through which sanitation workers receive livelihood financing.
Prohibits the employment of manual scavengers and the hazardous manual cleaning of sewers and septic tanks, and mandates the identification and rehabilitation of those engaged in it. NAMASTE is the operational arm of the mechanisation and rehabilitation objectives this Act creates.
A Directive Principle requiring the State to promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections, and in particular of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and to protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation. It is the constitutional anchor for PM-AJAY and the wider Social Justice portfolio.
Abolishes untouchability and forbids its practice in any form — the provision underlying the state's obligation to end manual scavenging, which is a caste-linked occupation rather than merely a hazardous one.
The nodal ministry for Scheduled Castes, Other Backward Classes, senior citizens, persons with disabilities, DNT communities and safai karamcharis, and the administrator of all three schemes reviewed here.
The National Commission for Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes, reconstituted in 2015 under the chairmanship of Bhiku Ramji Idate. It submitted its report in 2017, identified 1,526 DNT, NT and SNT communities of which 269 remained unclassified under SC, ST or OBC, and recommended a permanent commission for these communities. SEED is the principal scheme addressed to them.
Implements NAMASTE and provides concessional finance and skilling to safai karamcharis and their dependants. Its Managing Director attended the review.
The Criminal Tribes Act of 1871 empowered the colonial administration to notify entire communities as 'criminal by birth', subjecting them to registration, surveillance and restriction of movement across generations. That Act was repealed in 1952 and the communities were 'denotified' — hence the term. But denotification removed a legal stigma without supplying anything in its place: many of these communities were left outside the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Class categories through which India's affirmative action operates, so they could be simultaneously among the most marginalised and among the least eligible. The Idate Commission's finding that 269 of 1,526 such communities remain unclassified is the measure of that gap, and it is why SEED had to be built as a separate scheme rather than folded into existing SC or ST programmes. Nomadic and semi-nomadic communities face a further and distinct obstacle: welfare delivery in India is anchored to a fixed residential address, which a mobile population by definition lacks.
Simple Analogy: Denotification struck out a false charge on the record but issued no clearance certificate — the accusation went, and so did any category the community could belong to.
NAMASTE runs in convergence with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs — the sanitation infrastructure that Swachh Bharat built is what mechanisation and worker safety must now be attached to.
Extending NAMASTE to waste pickers is an attempt to formalise an entirely informal occupation, bringing profiling, insurance and equipment to workers with no employer of record.
SEED exists because DNT communities fall between the SC, ST and OBC categories; the classification gap identified by the Idate Commission is itself a live policy question.
The PM-AJAY portal and app follow the same pattern as JEEVAN, SHATAYU and the PDS reforms — replacing paper workflows with real-time monitoring as the principal accountability instrument.
Manual scavenging is treated in Indian law not merely as unsafe work but as a practice of untouchability, which is why prohibition and rehabilitation carry a constitutional weight that ordinary occupational safety regulation does not.
GS Paper 2 > Governance > Welfare Schemes for Vulnerable Sections; Social Justice > Scheduled Castes and Denotified Tribes
General Awareness > Government Schemes and Polity
General Awareness > Government Schemes
'Rashtriya Garima Abhiyaan' is a national campaign to
Answer: eradicate the practice of manual scavenging and rehabilitate the manual scavengers
Social justice schemes appear in Prelims most years; manual scavenging law and denotified tribes are recurring Mains themes.
National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem — the scheme for the safety and livelihood of sewer, septic tank and waste-picking workers.
Scheme for Economic Empowerment of Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes, launched in February 2022.
Pradhan Mantri Anusuchit Jaati Abhyuday Yojana — a centrally sponsored scheme for Scheduled Caste empowerment with Adarsh Gram, grants-in-aid and hostel components.
Communities notified as 'criminal tribes' under the Criminal Tribes Act, 1871 and denotified after its repeal in 1952.
A trained and equipped municipal unit intended to handle sewer and septic tank emergencies so that no worker enters manually.