NAMASTE scheme

Polity & Governance glossary

Also called: National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem · Topic: Safeguards for Vulnerable Sections: SCs, STs, OBCs, Minorities, Women and Children · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

NAMASTE (National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem) is a central government scheme, begun in 2023, that aims to stop people from going into sewers and septic tanks by hand. It does this by using machines for the cleaning, listing every sewer and septic-tank worker, and giving listed workers safety kits and Ayushman health cards. It matters because sewer deaths have "never tended towards zero". Most of this work is still done by members of historically marginalised castes, so the issue is about caste and dignity, not only about workplace safety.

Explanation

What the scheme tries to do

  • The goal is zero manual entry. The scheme does not try to make it safer for people to go inside a tank. It tries to make sure nobody needs to go inside at all.
  • Machines replace hands. The technology for mechanised cleaning already exists. The problem is getting people to use it, not inventing it.
  • It replaced an older scheme. NAMASTE took the place of SRMS (Self-Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers).
  • The ministry in charge is the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. Its minister reports the scheme's progress.

How a worker gets help: profiling first

  • Step 1: Profiling. A sewer or septic-tank worker is first officially listed (profiled).
  • Step 2: Benefits. Only after being listed can the worker get:
  • a PPE kit (personal protective equipment: masks, gloves, body suits);
  • an Ayushman card (health cover under Ayushman Bharat);

  • training.

  • Progress figures:

  • The ministry reported 85,819 workers profiled, 76,736 PPE kits given and 60,586 Ayushman cards issued.
  • A later Lok Sabha reply (August 2026) put the number of validated (checked and confirmed) workers at 89,915.

Limits built into the design

  • Anyone not on the list gets nothing.
  • SRMS had the same weakness. Its money was released only after a State identified a worker and uploaded the name, and States were slow to do this.

  • Under the 1993 and 2013 laws this work is already banned. So a State that reports many workers is admitting the ban has failed in that State. This gives States a reason to keep the count low.

  • It counts what was handed out, not lives saved.

  • Profiles, kits and cards are inputs. None of them shows how many people still go down into tanks by hand.

  • Handing out a kit still assumes the worker will go inside, which is the very thing the scheme wants to stop.

  • Private premises are the hardest to reach.

  • In Ujjain (MP), four workers died in a hotel's food-waste chamber. That is private property, not a city sewer.
  • Workers hired for a single day by hotels or housing societies are the least likely to be listed. Their risk is the highest.

In the Constitution and practice

  • Constitutional basis:
  • Art. 17 abolishes untouchability. Sewer work falls mostly on marginalised castes, so it raises Art. 17 concerns.
  • Art. 21 (right to life with dignity) is the basis for compensation and for protecting workers' lives.
  • Art. 23 bans forced labour.

  • Art. 46 tells the state to promote, "with special care", the economic interests of weaker sections, especially SCs and STs.

  • The law behind it: Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act 2013 (PEMSR Act)

  • It replaced the 1993 Act, which covered only dry latrines.
  • It covers sewers and septic tanks too, and bans hazardous cleaning without protective gear.
  • It provides for surveys and rehabilitation. Its offences are cognisable (police can arrest without a warrant) and non-bailable.

  • It treats "hazardous cleaning" of sewers and septic tanks as legally separate from "manual scavenging".

  • Court orders the scheme works alongside:

  • Safai Karamchari Andolan v. Union of India (2014): set compensation of ₹10 lakh for each sewer death.
  • Dr Balram Singh v. Union of India (October 2023): raised compensation to ₹30 lakh for a death and ₹20 lakh for permanent disability. It also applied these duties to sewer work outsourced to contractors.

  • The Supreme Court is still watching the issue. It has issued notices to the Chief Secretaries of five States over sewer deaths.

  • How it has worked in practice:

  • 1,350 sewer and septic-tank deaths from 1993 to 2025 (Parliament/NCSK data).
  • 498 deaths from 2019 to mid-2026. In the same reply, the government reported no manual-scavenging deaths.
  • Since at least 2021, the government has said manual cleaning of insanitary latrines has ended.

  • Safai Karamchari Andolan, an advocacy group, says deaths are badly under-reported.

  • Lesson from SRMS:

  • SRMS money went unused in five of the seven years from 2010-11 to 2017-18.
  • After two years in a row of zero spending, its 2016-17 budget was cut from ₹470.19 crore to ₹10 crore.

Don't confuse with

  • SRMS (Self-Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers): the older scheme that NAMASTE replaced. SRMS was about rehabilitating manual scavengers. NAMASTE is about mechanising the cleaning of sewers and septic tanks.
  • PEMSR Act 2013: this is the law, which bans the work and makes it an offence. NAMASTE is a welfare scheme run under the government's executive power. It creates no offences.
  • Manual scavenging vs hazardous cleaning: under the 2013 Act these are legally separate. So "zero manual-scavenging deaths" does not mean zero sewer deaths.
  • NCSK (National Commission for Safai Karamcharis): a statutory body that monitors the issue and is a source of official sewer-death data. It does not run NAMASTE.

Prelims Hooks

  • NAMASTE stands for National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem. It began in 2023 and replaced SRMS.
  • Its benefits (PPE kits, Ayushman cards, training) go only to workers who have been profiled first.
  • Workers validated under NAMASTE: 89,915.
  • The PEMSR Act 2013 covers sewers and septic tanks. The 1993 Act covered only dry latrines.
  • Safai Karamchari Andolan (2014) set ₹10 lakh. Dr Balram Singh (2023) raised it to ₹30 lakh for death and ₹20 lakh for permanent disability. Trap: ₹30 lakh does not come from the 2014 case.
  • Trap: "No manual-scavenging deaths were reported, so no sanitation workers died." FALSE. 498 workers died in hazardous sewer and septic-tank cleaning from 2019 to mid-2026.

Mains Points

  • The list-based design repeats the SRMS weakness.
  • Benefits depend on States identifying workers, and States gain from showing low numbers.
  • The Parliamentary Standing Committee had asked for a fresh survey for this reason.

  • Reform: an independent recount, not done by State officials, and outcome measures such as cities with zero manual entry, cleaning calls handled by machine, and deaths each year.

  • Splitting "hazardous cleaning" from "manual scavenging" weakens accountability.

  • Official claims that the practice has ended reduce pressure on officials to inspect municipalities and private premises.
  • A safety problem that falls mainly on marginalised castes is still a caste problem (Art. 17).

  • Reform: register private chambers in hotels and housing societies with urban local bodies (city municipalities), and require them to hire only mechanised cleaners.

  • Mechanisation alone is not enough without enforcement.

  • Dr Balram Singh (2023) extended duties to outsourced work. So after a death, police should file a case against the contractor and the owner of the premises instead of treating it as an accident.
  • Regular Supreme Court follow-up, such as its notices to Chief Secretaries, keeps senior officials answerable.

Recent developments

  • Waste pickers now count as NAMASTE beneficiaries (2025): PIB reported in 2025 that NAMASTE has reached more than 2,50,000 waste pickers, people who collect and sort recyclable waste. The scheme is no longer only about sewer and septic-tank workers. It now covers the wider informal sanitation workforce, so the "who is covered" question in exams has a bigger answer.
  • Over 90,000 septic-tank workers reached (PIB, 2025): PIB also says the scheme has reached more than 90,000 septic-tank cleaning workers. This is a figure for workers "reached". It is a different measure from the 89,915 "validated" (checked and confirmed) workers in the August 2026 Lok Sabha reply, so do not mix up the two numbers. Both are still input counts. Neither shows how many people still enter tanks by hand.
  • President asks for "safe" sanitation technology (November 2026): On 11 November 2026, while presenting the Swachh Survekshan 2025-26 awards, the President said sanitation technology must be effective, affordable and safe. IITs and startups were named as partners in building it. This supports NAMASTE's goal of mechanised cleaning. But Swachh Survekshan is run by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), and its rankings do not check whether a city's sewers are cleaned by machine. A city can therefore rank as clean while workers still go into its tanks by hand.

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