Minister of Social Justice And Empowerment, Thaawarchand Gehlot has said that the government has proposed to release One Time Cash Assistance (OTCA) to all the identified manual scavengers.

In a reply to a question raised in the Lok Sabha today, the Minister said that there was demand from several quarters that all the manual scavengers who were engaged in manual scavenging after the enactment of the “Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013” were left out from identification.

The minister also said that the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and NITI Aayog took cognizance of these demands. He said that accordingly, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, with the support of NITI Aayog, initiated National Survey of Manual Scavengers for which National Safai Karamcharis Finance and Development Corporation (NSKFDC) is the nodal agency.

Minister also said that it was decided to conduct the survey in the first phase, in 170 districts of 18 States. So far survey reports have been received from 159 of 170 districts and 39,093 manual scavengers have been identified.