SOCIAL JUSTICE MINISTRY ALLOCATION
RS. 40 CRORE FOR REHABILITATION OF SCAVENGERS
The Ministry of Social
Justice and Empowerment has allocated Rs. 40 crore for liberation
and rehabilitation of scavengers during the current financial
year. The centre has since 1991-92 released Rs. 712.14 crore to
various state and union territories under the National Scheme
of Liberation and Rehabilitation of Scavengers. The objective
of the scheme is to liberate the scavengers and their dependents
from the traditional demeaning occupation of manually removing
nightsoil and filth and engage them in dignified occupations.
The scheme provides for their training upto 6 months in training
institutes run by Central and State Governments, local bodes and
NGOs. The scavengers are provided a monthly stipend of Rs. 500/-,
training fee of Rs. 300/- per month and a tool kit allowance of
Rs. 2000/-. The centre meets the full cost of the training. For
rehabilitation, the projects costing upto Rs. 50,000 per beneficiary
are financed both by the centre and state governments under a
financial package. Under it, 50 percent subsidy upto a ceiling
of ten thousand rupees per project is provided. 15% of the project
cost is met through Margin Money Loan which is shared by the central
and state governments in the ratio of 49:51. Rest of the project
cost is met through loans from National Safai Karmachari Finance
and Development Corporation and banks.
In order to speed
up the rehabilitation process of scavengers. The concept of Sanitary
Marts was extended to the scheme. The basic thrust of the Mart
is to bring scavengers together into groups of 25 to 30 persons
each group. The sanitary Mart functions as a commercial unit dealing
in sanitary items including manufacturing some of them. More than
4 lakh scavengers out of an estimated 6.76 scavengers have been
rehabilitated so far.
