Centre Set to Expand NAMASTE Sanitation Scheme to Rural India Despite NCSC Implementation Concerns

Gist - NAMASTE Expansion: Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment proposes extending NAMASTE to rural areas and covering more categories of sanitation workers . - NCSC Concerns: National Commission for Scheduled Castes NCSC flagged high rejection rates for rehabilitation subsidies to manual scavengers . - Governance Issue: Highlights the gap between scheme expansion and unresolved last-mile delivery/implementation bottlenecks . Background - Launched in 2023-24 , the NAMASTE scheme is a central sector initiative administered by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment . - Its primary mandate is to eradicate hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks, thereby eliminating sanitation-worker deaths, by transitioning these workers to mechanized alternatives. - The scheme functions by providing capital subsidies of up to 50% to manual scavengers and sewer/septic tank workers SSWs , helping them purchase mechanized cleaning equipment and start their own independent sanitation enterprises. - Prior to this proposed expansion, the scheme's jurisdiction was limited to urban local bodies, focusing primarily on SSWs and waste pickers. Key Pointers - Geographic and Demographic Expansion: The proposed shift extends the safety net from an…