NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has decided to conduct a survey to identify manual scavengers in 23 additional districts across four states. The survey of additional districts is likely to start from June.
The survey would be carried out across 16 districts in Assam, five in Karnataka, and one each in Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand.
The districts include Barpeta, Bongaigaon, Chirang, Dhubri, Dibrugarh, Hojai, Kamrup, Karimganj, Darrang, Morigaon, Nagaon, Nalbari, Tejpur, Tinsukia, Cachar and Dhemaji in Assam, Bokaro in Jharkhand, Devangree, Bagalkot, Bagalaun, Raichur and Vijayapura in Karnataka, and Mathura in Uttar Pradesh.
In the first phase of the survey, which started last year across around 170 districts and is still on, over 30,000 people have been recognised as manual scavengers by the Centre, according to officials.
In the ongoing survey, the states that were covered included are Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, West Bengal, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir, among others.
The National Safai Karamcharis Finance and Development Corporation, the agency conducting the survey for the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, has written to two NGOs to involve them as stakeholders in the survey.