01 Read
What happened
The NAMASTE scheme, jointly implemented by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, aims to eliminate manual scavenging in urban India by professionalising sanitation work. A recent PIB release highlights a success case where sewer and septic tank workers received safety equipment, skill training, and access to mechanised tools. The scheme targets hazardous cleaning jobs and provides beneficiaries with capital subsidies and alternative livelihoods under a convergence model.
02 Understand
Why it matters
NAMASTE stands for National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem. It was launched in 2022-23 as a Central Sector Scheme with a budget of ₹360 crore, replacing the earlier Self Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers (SRMS). The scheme operates through a convergence of multiple central programmes — PM SVANidhi for credit, PM DAKSH for skill training, and NAMASTE's own component for safety equipment and capitalization.
The core problem NAMASTE addresses is that despite legal prohibition of manual scavenging under the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, deaths in sewers and septic tanks continued because sanitation work remained informal, dangerous, and caste-linked. NAMASTE reframes the worker — from a 'manual scavenger' to a 'Sanitation Worker' — and then progressively upgrades them to 'Sanitation Entrepreneur' through mechanisation and capital access.
Key delivery features: (1) Profiling of all sewer and septic tank workers through Urban Local Bodies (ULBs); (2) PPE kits and safety gear provisioned free of cost; (3) Skill training under PM DAKSH for machine operation; (4) Capital subsidy up to ₹5 lakh for purchasing sanitation machines; (5) All workers to be linked with government health and social security schemes.
For NABARD and UPSC aspirants, the critical linkage is that NAMASTE is a rights-based urban welfare scheme targeting a constitutionally-protected marginalised community, delivered through ULBs and funded as a Central Sector Scheme — meaning 100% central funding with no state share, distinguishing it from Centrally Sponsored Schemes.
The core problem NAMASTE addresses is that despite legal prohibition of manual scavenging under the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, deaths in sewers and septic tanks continued because sanitation work remained informal, dangerous, and caste-linked. NAMASTE reframes the worker — from a 'manual scavenger' to a 'Sanitation Worker' — and then progressively upgrades them to 'Sanitation Entrepreneur' through mechanisation and capital access.
Key delivery features: (1) Profiling of all sewer and septic tank workers through Urban Local Bodies (ULBs); (2) PPE kits and safety gear provisioned free of cost; (3) Skill training under PM DAKSH for machine operation; (4) Capital subsidy up to ₹5 lakh for purchasing sanitation machines; (5) All workers to be linked with government health and social security schemes.
For NABARD and UPSC aspirants, the critical linkage is that NAMASTE is a rights-based urban welfare scheme targeting a constitutionally-protected marginalised community, delivered through ULBs and funded as a Central Sector Scheme — meaning 100% central funding with no state share, distinguishing it from Centrally Sponsored Schemes.
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