It is learnt that the Corporation of City of Panjim (CCP) has recently procured a “bandicoot” robot which is the only robot available in India to clean the city manholes. The procurement of the new machine will eliminate the work of manual sewage extraction. It may be recalled that recently one labourer reportedly died of drowning while cleaning a six-metre deep Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) chamber while another one was rescued at Kapileshwarim, Kavlem in Ponda. ‘Manual scavenging’ is a term used mainly in India for manually cleaning, carrying, disposing of, or otherwise handling human waste in a septic tank or a pit. In 1993, India banned the employment of people as manual scavengers. In 2013 a landmark new legislation in the form of the Manual Scavengers Act was passed which seeks to reinforce this ban by prohibiting manual scavenging in all forms and ensures the rehabilitation of manual scavengers to be identified through a survey. Sewers and septic tanks are home to toxic gases like ammonia, carbon monoxide, and sulphur dioxide. Coming in direct contact with these would cause unconsciousness and even death. Under the new measures, sewer and septic tank cleaning will reportedly be mechanized. Instructions were also issued not to use the word 'manhole' anymore and that it should be replaced by 'machine-hole'. The Act recognizes manual scavenging as a “dehumanizing practice” and cites the need to correct the historical injustice and indignity suffered by the manual scavengers.
