New Delhi: As many as 352 persons died in the country in the last five years while cleaning sewers and septic tanks with the maximum death recorded from Uttar Pradesh (57), followed by 46 in Tamil Nadu, 42 from New Delhi, and 38 from Haryana, the government said in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
This information was shared by the Minister of State (MoS) for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale in the upper house of the Parliament via a written reply while replying to a question from RLD MP Jayant Singh Choudhary.
The MoS in his reply also noted that "There is no report of people currently engaged in manual scavenging in the country." As per the data shared by the Minister, the States which recorded the lowest number of deaths are Kerala and Chhattisgarh (1), followed by 2 each in Bihar and Odisha and 3 from Chandigarh, Dadra Nagar & Haveli, and Uttarakhand.
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"Under the Swachh Bharat Mission, since October 2, 2014, more than 11.06 crore sanitary toilets have been constructed in rural areas and over 62.79 lakh in urban areas and unsanitary toilets have been converted into sanitary toilets. This work made a huge contribution towards ending the practice of manual scavenging", MoS replied when being asked to comment on the steps taken by the government to ensure a complete ban on manual scavenging.
