5,365 persons identified as manual scavengers

The government has identified 5,365 persons as manual scavengers across 125 districts, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thaawarchand Gehlot said on Tuesday.

Interacting with reporters to highlight the achievements of his ministry in the last four years, Gehlot said in view of the slow progress of identification of scavengers by states, a National Survey of Manual Scavengers had been undertaken in 170 identified districts of 18 states.

"Survey camps in 125 districts have been completed and so far, 5,365 persons have been identified as manual scavengers," he said.

Listing another achievement of his ministry, he said that a national survey was being undertaken for the first time covering 185 districts, 1.5 lakh households and 6 lakh individuals to identify drug abuse victims.

The survey would be completed shortly, according to the Minister.

Gehlot said that under the centrally-sponsored scheme for implementation of Prevention of Atrocities (PoA) Act and Protection of Civil Rights (PCR) Act, amount of incentive for inter-caste marriages, where one of the spouses is a member of a scheduled caste, has been uniformly made as Rs 2.50 lakh with effect from 2017-2018.

--IANS

sm/nir