Cleaning sewers and septic tanks is an “occupation-based activity” rather than caste-based work, the Centre claimed in Parliament on Tuesday.

However, data cited by the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment showed that Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes together accounted for nearly 92% of sewer and septic tank workers. Those from the general category accounted for 8.05% of the workers.

Those from Scheduled Castes alone constituted 67.91% of the workers, followed by 15.73 from Other Backward Classes and 8.31% from Scheduled Tribes.

The government collected the data as part of a scheme named National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem, or NAMASTE. The stated aims of the scheme include ensuring zero fatalities in sanitation work, eliminating direct contact with human faecal matter, and providing workers with occupational safety training.

As part of the scheme, the government profiled and validated 54,574 persons who work in sewers and septic tanks, Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale told the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

Athwale was responding to a question from Congress MP Kuldeep Indora, who asked about the details of sanitation workers and the status of the NAMASTE scheme.

In his response, Athawale said that 16,791 personal protection equipment kits and 43 safety device kits were provided to sanitation workers under the scheme.

Manual scavenging, which is the practice of removing human excreta by hand from sewer lines or septic tanks, is banned under the 2013 Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act.

However the practice remains prevalent in several parts of the country.

The Centre told the Rajya Sabha on July 31 that 377 persons died between 2019 and 2023 due to the “hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks”. However, Athawale maintained at the time that there was “no report of practice of manual scavenging currently in the country”.

Two surveys conducted in 2013 and 2018 to identify erstwhile manual scavengers placed the total number of persons engaged in the activity at 58,098, the minister told the House.