NAMASTE Scheme – Key Features

August 19, 2022

NAMASTE Scheme was launched jointly by “Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment” and Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs”. It is a Central Sector Scheme. The scheme seeks to provide safety and dignity to sanitation workers across urban India by erecting an enabling ecosystem to recognize sanitation workers a significant contributor in maintenance and operation of sanitation infrastructure.

Important Features of the Scheme include:

The scheme seeks to provide sanitation workers a sustainable livelihood and enhance their occupational safety besides increasing access to safety gear and machines.
It is aimed at providing access to alternative livelihoods support and reducing the vulnerabilities of sanitation workers.
It would enable the sanitation workers to access self-employment and skilled wage employment opportunities.
It would also bring about behaviour change amongst citizens towards sanitation workers and increase demand for safe sanitation services.

Main objectives of the scheme are:

To attain zero fatalities in sanitation work across India.
To ensure sanitation work is being performed by skilled workers.
To ensure that, sanitation workers does not come in direct contact with human faecal matter.
To ensure sanitation workers are empowered to run sanitation enterprises.
To open up access to alternative livelihoods to all Sewer and Septic tank sanitation workers (SSWs).

Under the NAMASTE scheme, Sewer or Septic Tank Workers will be identified and focus will be on informal workforce engaged in hazardous cleaning operations. It will enable the ministries to reach to the workers and their families to provide them required support for developing skill.

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