March 18, 2002

RAJYA SABHA

NUMBER OF SCAVENGERS COMES DOWN WITH ASSISTANCE FOR LIBERATION AND REHABILITATION

    The number of scavengers in some states has come down . Stating this in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today, the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Dr. Satyanarayan Jatiya said that six lakh seventy six thousand scavengers have bee identified in twenty states and union territories. He said that the highest number of more than eighty thousand scavengers have been identified in Madhya Pradesh followed by about sixty four thousand eight hundred in Maharashtra and about sixty four thousand two hundred in Gujarat. Dr. Jatiya said that the scavengers are being assisted for rehabilitation under the National Scheme for Liberation and Rehabilitation of Scavengers and the Schemes of the National Safai Karamcharis Finance and Development Corporation. In another reply the Minister stated that in Gujarat about eleven thousand scavengers have so far been assisted for rehabilitation under the National Scheme for Liberation and Rehabilitation of Scavengers.