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A National Workshop on 'Mission Zero: Ending Fatalities in Sanitation Work' was held at the State Convention Centre, Lokseva Bhawan, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, attended by Odisha Chief Minister Shri Mohan Charan Majhi.
Shri Sudhansh Pant, Secretary, Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, said achieving zero fatalities in sanitation work is a core national priority and called for a whole-of-government approach to safe, systematic and dignified sanitation services.
The NAMASTE and GARIMA schemes were highlighted as the instruments for promoting mechanisation and ensuring occupational safety, health, education and livelihood opportunities for sanitation workers and their dependents.
The Swachhata Sarthi / waste picker component introduced in 2024 has brought waste pickers within the scheme's social and economic empowerment measures.
NAMASTE has been extended up to 2031, with the objective of systematic sanitation service delivery through Emergency Response Sanitation Units (ERSUs), advancing the Mission Zero agenda and saturating welfare measures for sanitation workers and their families.
A Central Sector Scheme for the welfare of Sewer and Septic Tank Workers (SSWs), launched in July 2023 by the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment in convergence with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. Its intended outcomes are zero fatalities in sanitation work, elimination of direct contact between workers and human faecal matter, all cleaning through safety devices, and all sanitation work performed by skilled workers.
Key: Implemented by the National Safai Karamcharis Finance and Development Corporation (NSKFDC). Components include profiling of sewer and septic tank workers, health insurance under Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY, occupational safety training, PPE kits, upfront capital subsidy for sanitation vehicles and equipment, safety device kits for Emergency Response Sanitation Units, and awareness campaigns. It replaced the earlier Self Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers (SRMS). Waste pickers were added as a target group in 2024, and the scheme has now been extended up to 2031.
Odisha's state scheme to institutionalise and regulate core sanitation services and provide social security, financial benefits and social dignity to core sanitation workers and their families - the state initiative the Ministry cited alongside NAMASTE at this Bhubaneswar workshop.
Key: Driven by Odisha's Housing and Urban Development Department, with a dedicated corpus fund and a State Commission for Core Sanitation Workers; it covers mechanisation of cleaning, PPE, training, housing and insurance for around 20,000 core sanitation workers and their families.
City-level units that respond to sewer and septic tank emergencies with machines and trained crews rather than by sending a worker into the pit.
Key: Strengthening and equipping ERSUs is the operational core of NAMASTE's extension to 2031; safety device kits are supplied to them under the scheme.
The predecessor scheme, which provided one-time cash assistance, skill training and capital subsidy for alternative livelihoods to identified manual scavengers and their dependants.
Key: Superseded by NAMASTE, which shifted the emphasis from individual rehabilitation after the fact to mechanising the work itself and covering sewer and septic tank workers as an occupational category.
Prohibits the employment of manual scavengers, the manual cleaning of sewers and septic tanks without protective equipment, and the construction of insanitary latrines, and provides for the rehabilitation of those identified. Mission Zero is the administrative attempt to make the prohibition real by removing the need for a human to enter a sewer at all.
The earlier prohibition, which the 2013 Act replaced with a wider definition and a stronger rehabilitation mandate. The 1993 and 2013 dates are the pair most often confused in questions.
Created the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis, which was set up on 12 August 1994. The Act ceased to have effect from 29 February 2004, and the Commission has since continued as a NON-statutory body whose tenure is extended by government resolution from time to time. Its scope was widened by the 2013 Act, under which it monitors implementation.
Abolishes untouchability and forbids its practice in any form. Manual scavenging is the practice most directly bound up with caste-based occupational stigma, which is why sanitation workers' welfare sits with the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment rather than with a sanitation or labour ministry.
The nodal agency implementing NAMASTE; a corporation under the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment that provides concessional finance and skill development to safai karamcharis, scavengers and their dependants.
Set up on 12 August 1994 under the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis Act, 1993; the Act lapsed on 29 February 2004 and the Commission now functions as a non-statutory body extended by resolution. It investigates grievances of safai karamcharis and monitors implementation of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013.
The technical wing of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs for water supply and sanitation; it issues the manuals and standards that govern sewerage practice, and was represented at the workshop by its Advisor.
Nodal ministry for NAMASTE and for the welfare of sanitation workers, working in convergence with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, which owns urban sanitation infrastructure.
SBM-U builds the toilets and sewerage; NAMASTE addresses the people who maintain them. Sanitation coverage and sanitation labour are two halves of the same policy and are administered by different ministries, which is why 'convergence' recurs in the language.
Health insurance for sewer and septic tank workers under NAMASTE is delivered through PMJAY rather than through a separate scheme - a standard example of scheme convergence.
Article 17 abolishes untouchability, and manual scavenging is the practice most closely tied to caste-based occupational segregation - the reason the subject belongs to the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment.
Sanitation is a municipal function under the Twelfth Schedule, so a national mission on sanitation-work safety must be executed through ULBs - hence their central place at the workshop.
Waste-to-Wealth Self Help Groups of waste pickers link this to the wider policy of organising informal workers into collectives for livelihood and social security.
GS Paper 2 > Social Justice > Welfare Schemes for Vulnerable Sections; Governance > Statutory and Non-statutory Bodies
General Awareness > Schemes and Acts
General Awareness > Government Schemes
'Rashtriya Garima Abhiyaan' is a national campaign to
Answer: eradicate the practice of manual scavenging and rehabilitate the manual scavengers
Manual scavenging legislation, NAMASTE and the NCSK are recurring UPSC Prelims and Mains topics under Social Justice, and appear in SSC general awareness as scheme-to-ministry pairings.
National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem, a Central Sector Scheme launched July 2023 for the welfare of sewer and septic tank workers; extended up to 2031.
The goal of zero fatalities in sanitation work, pursued through mechanisation, institutional preparedness, worker safety, social security and livelihood support.
Emergency Response Sanitation Unit - a city-level mechanised unit for responding to sewer and septic tank emergencies.
National Safai Karamcharis Finance and Development Corporation, the nodal implementing agency for NAMASTE, under the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment.
The waste-picker component introduced under the scheme in 2024, extending coverage to waste pickers.
Odisha's state scheme for the safety, social security and dignity of core sanitation workers, cited by the Ministry alongside NAMASTE.
Self Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers, the predecessor scheme replaced by NAMASTE.
National Commission for Safai Karamcharis, set up 12 August 1994; non-statutory since the enabling Act lapsed on 29 February 2004.