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» The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Bill, 2012
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Highlights of the
Bill
- The
Bill prohibits the employment of manual scavengers, the manual
cleaning of sewers and septic tanks without protective equipment, and
the construction of insanitary latrines.
- It
seeks to rehabilitate manual scavengers and provide for their
alternative employment.
- Each
local authority, cantonment board and railway authority is responsible
for surveying insanitary latrines within its jurisdiction. They
shall also construct a number of sanitary community latrines.
- Each
occupier of insanitary latrines shall be responsible for converting or
demolishing the latrine at his own cost. If he fails to do so,
the local authority shall convert the latrine and recover the cost
from him.
- The
District Magistrate and the local authority shall be the implementing
authorities.
- Offences
under the Bill shall be cognizable and non-bailable, and may be tried
summarily.
Key Issues and Analysis
- The
existing law prohibiting manual scavenging was enacted under the State
List. There could be an argument for Parliament’s jurisdiction
to enact this Bill as this regulates conditions of work, and is thus a
Concurrent List item.
- Neither
the state nor the centre is mandated under the Bill to provide
financial assistance for the conversion of insanitary latrines.
This may adversely impact implementation of the Bill.
- Offences
under the Bill may be tried summarily though the penalty could be five
years imprisonment. However, under the CrPC, only offences with
a maximum imprisonment of two years can be tried summarily.
- A
state government can grant the Executive Magistrate the judicial power
to try offences under the Bill. This may create a conflict of
interest if the Executive Magistrate is also the implementing
authority.
- The
Bill has a wider scope and higher penalties than the 1993 Act.
Note : Download complete analysis of this bill from link given below.
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source: prsindia.org
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