Cabinet approves tenure extension of National Commission for Safai Karamcharis

NEW DELHI: The union cabinet on Wednesday approved the extension of the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis (NCSK) for three years with effect from April 1, 2022.

Union minister Anurag Thakur while announcing the cabinet decisions said, “The union cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, on Wednesday has approved the extension of the tenure of the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis for three years from April 1, 2022. Now it will remain in effect till March 31, 2025.”

“The commission is responsible for giving recommendations to the government regarding specific programmes for welfare of Safai Karamcharis, study and evaluate the existing welfare programmes for Safai Karamcharis, investigate cases of specific grievances etc. Modi government is determined to work for the welfare of safai karamcharis,” he said.

The commission was established in 1993 as per the provisions of the NCSK Act initially for the period upto March 31,1997. Later the validity of the Act was extended for five years and then again for two years i.e up to February 29, 2004.

After that it was lapsed and the tenure of the commission was extended as a non-statutory body under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. The tenure of the Commission was being extended from time to time through government resolutions. The present tenure is valid upto March 31, 2022.

“The total implication of the extension for three years will be approximately Rs.43.68 crore,” the government said in a statement.

The major beneficiaries under the commission are the Safai Karamcharis and identified manual scavengers in the country. According to the government data, there were 58,098 manual scavengers identitied in the country as on December 31, 2021.

“Though the government has taken many steps for the upliftment of the Safai Karamcharis, the deprivation suffered by them in socio-economic and educational terms is still far from being eliminated. Although manual scavenging has been almost eradicated, sporadic instances do occur. Hazardous cleaning of sewer/septic tanks continues to be an area of the highest priority for the government. Hence, the Government feels that there is a continued need to monitor the various interventions and initiatives of the government for welfare of Safai Karamcharis and to achieve the goal of complete mechanization of sewer/septic tanks cleaning in the country and rehabilitation of manual scavengers,” the statement added.