Data on the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment’s mobile app ‘Swachhata Abhiyaan’ identifies 6,253 cases of manual scavenging in the country. But the Ministry is not sure if the numbers are authentic.
A note prepared for the Ministry in the Supreme Court said the mobile app was launched on December 24, 2020 to capture the data of insanitary latrines still existing and manual scavengers associated with them. The technology was meant to provide precise data in a cost-effective manner. Physical survey would have been expensive and time-consuming, the Ministry told the court. Anyone could upload data of insanitary latrines and manual scavengers on the mobile app. Thereafter, the data would be verified by the district administration concerned.
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