NAMASTE

Context

About

• It is a Central Sector Scheme of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MOSJE) as a joint initiative of the MOSJE and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MOHUA).
• It envisages the safety and dignity of sanitation workers in urban India by creating an enabling ecosystem that recognizes sanitation workers as one of the key contributors to the operations and maintenance of sanitation infrastructure.
• It focuses on capacity building and improves access to safety gear and machines.

Significance

• It will be providing access to alternative livelihood support and entitlements to reduce the vulnerabilities of sanitation workers.
• It will enable them to access self-employment and skilled wage employment opportunities and break the intergenerational in sanitation work.
• It will also bring about a behaviour change amongst citizens toward sanitation workers and enhance the demand for safe sanitation services.

Aim

• Zero fatalities in sanitation work in India.
• All sanitation work is performed by skilled workers
• No sanitation workers come in direct contact with human faecal matter.
• Sanitation workers are collectivized into SHGs and are empowered to run sanitation enterprises.
• All sewer and septic tank sanitation workers have access to alternative livelihoods.
• Strengthened supervisory and monitoring systems at national, state, and ULB levels to ensure enforcement and monitoring of safe sanitation work.
• Increased awareness amongst sanitation services seekers (individuals and institutions) to seek services from registered and skilled sanitation workers.
• For the first time, 500 cities across India have declared themselves as SafaiMitra Surakshit Shehar.
• Capacity, manpower, and equipment norms as stipulated by MOHUA are providing safe working conditions for SafaiMitras.

• All Indian cities are to be Safai Mitra Surakshit by March 2024.
• Skill Development and training of Safai Mitras are being taken up with the support of the MOSJE through the National Safai Karamchari Finance Development Corporation.
• It should be also noted that the ministry also promotes Urban Local Bodies and Safai Mitras to avail loans provided by MOSJE under its Swachhta Udyami Yojana to procure equipment and vehicles for cleaning sewers and septic tanks.
• The government has formulated various structures like the Responsible Sanitation Authority (RSA) and Emergency Response Sanitation Unit (ERSU).
• This will ensure that only trained professionals are exposed to any potential hazard with appropriate safety gear.
• National Safai Karamchari Financial Development Corporation would be implementing an agency for NAMASTE.
• The identified sanitation workers and their family members will be extended benefits of all social security schemes being implemented by various departments.
• For providing a safety net for identified SSW and their families they will be covered under the Ayushyaman Bharat –Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana.
• The premium for AB-PMJAY for those identified SSWs families who are not covered earlier shall be borne under NAMASTE.