Manual scavenging: Apex Court contempt action puts Gujarat under spotlight

 

By Rajiv Shah 

The recent decision of the Supreme Court of India to initiate contempt proceedings against 15 states and Union Territories for failing to eradicate manual scavenging and for non-compliance with its 2023 directions on eliminating hazardous sewer cleaning and paying ₹30 lakh compensation to the families of victims could have significant implications for Gujarat.

The Supreme Court's concerns regarding Gujarat include the continued reliance on contractors, which allegedly allows civic bodies to evade responsibility, the failure to fully mechanize sewer and septic tank cleaning, and apparent discrepancies between official data on manual scavengers and the number of sanitation workers identified under government schemes.

The 15 states and Union Territories issued contempt notices are Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, West Bengal, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Goa, Bihar, and Jharkhand.

Gujarat draws particular attention for two reasons. First, Mahatma Gandhi had strongly condemned manual scavenging, describing it as a "hateful practice." He famously said, "I may not be born again, but if it happens, I will like to be born into a family of scavengers, so that I may relieve them of the inhuman, unhealthy and hateful practice of carrying night soil."

Second, Gujarat is the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, making the state's performance on the issue politically significant.

The Supreme Court's order of July 27, 2026, was passed by a Bench comprising Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Vipul M. Pancholi during the hearing of a public interest litigation. The Bench issued show-cause notices to the chief secretaries of the 15 states and Union Territories, directing them to explain within four weeks why contempt proceedings should not be initiated for alleged willful disobedience of the Court's earlier orders.

During the hearing, amicus curiae and senior advocate K. Parameshwar informed the Court that data placed before Parliament recorded 54 sewer-cleaning deaths in 2024 and another 46 in 2025 across the states facing notices. In October 2023, the Supreme Court had directed the complete elimination of manual scavenging and enhanced compensation for sewer deaths to ₹30 lakh. In January 2025, it also prohibited manual sewer cleaning in six metropolitan cities—Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad—observing that civic authorities continued to shift responsibility to contractors instead of ending the practice.

The latest contempt notices require the chief secretaries to submit detailed affidavits explaining the reasons for continued non-compliance with these directions.

According to those familiar with the issue, the non-compliance across the states reflects inadequate implementation of the Supreme Court's October 2023 directives. Despite repeated judicial directions, many civic bodies continue to depend on contractors who deploy workers into hazardous sewers instead of adopting fully mechanized cleaning systems.

Among the issues highlighted by the Supreme Court is the tendency of municipal authorities to attribute responsibility to contractors. During the hearing, the Bench observed, "Still deaths are occurring, you start putting the blame on contractors... we will fix the responsibility."

Observers also point to inadequate investment in mechanized cleaning technology, continued manual entry into sewers and septic tanks without adequate safety equipment, and delays or failures in paying the mandatory ₹30 lakh compensation to the families of workers who lose their lives while cleaning sewers.

In Gujarat, concerns relate both to official data and implementation. Parliamentary records indicate that while the state officially identified only 105 manual scavengers, more than 7,648 sewer and septic tank workers were validated under the Union government's NAMASTE scheme. This gap has raised questions among activists and experts about the identification process.

The NAMASTE (National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem) scheme, launched in 2023 by the Ministries of Social Justice and Empowerment and Housing and Urban Affairs, aims to eliminate hazardous manual sewer and septic tank cleaning through full mechanisation. 

It also seeks to identify sanitation workers and provide training, safety gear, insurance, financial support, and alternative livelihoods while helping urban local bodies adopt modern technologies; however, the gap between identified workers and officially recognised manual scavengers has raised concerns about possible underreporting in states like Gujarat.

Although the state has maintained that manual scavenging has been eliminated, reports indicate that at least 27 sanitation workers have died during sewer-cleaning operations since 2021. Several of these incidents reportedly involved workers employed through contractors in municipal areas and private industrial establishments.

The Gujarat High Court has also criticized the state government for delays in paying compensation to the families of sanitation workers who died during manual scavenging operations. While state law places responsibility on local civic bodies if manual scavenging occurs within their jurisdiction, activists contend that accountability is often diluted through the use of contract labour.

Gujarat Dalit rights activist Kantilal Parmar said the Supreme Court's notice raises serious concerns about the continued deaths of sanitation workers despite legal prohibitions on manual scavenging.

"The issue raises important questions about inadequate safety measures, the continued use of manual entry into sewers, weak enforcement of the law, delayed compensation for victims' families, and the lack of effective rehabilitation," he said.

Parmar argued that manual scavenging violates the constitutional rights to equality, dignity, and life. He said governments should ensure complete mechanization of sewer cleaning, hold officials and contractors accountable where violations occur, provide timely compensation and rehabilitation, and address discrimination faced by sanitation workers.

He added that the Supreme Court's intervention underscores that deaths during sewer cleaning are unacceptable and that states must move beyond formal compliance by taking concrete measures to protect the safety and dignity of sanitation workers.