Manual scavenging refers to the removal of human waste/excreta (night soil) from unsanitary, "dry" toilets, “dry toilets”, i.e., toilets without the modern flush system. Manual scavenging involves the removal of human excreta using brooms and tin plates.

The country’s 1.15 lakh kms of railway line is the biggest area under open defecation. Deliberations were on to protect this act by involving the railways. The law department asked the railways to clean the tracks nationwide and also build toilets beside the lines. This humongous project would require huge financial resources and would impose a big liability on the railways. They formed a board to deliberate on the bill, in consideration, that they used scrubbers, high pressure jet cleaners and mops to clean the tracks and its toilets in trains and on platforms. However the railways sited the safety of trains if community toilets were built along the tracks since that would increase trespasses. The standing committee in its report in March recommended that the railways seek more funds for the 12th Five Year Plan for the conversion of all toilets into bio-toilets, elimination of direct discharge toilets and construction of more toilets.

Section 24.10 talks of a scheme being implemented since 1977-78 wherein financial assistance is being provided to the children of tanners, manual scavengers, flayers and sweepers to enable them to pursue pre-matric education.

Section 24.17 says that Economic empowerment is an important mechanism to achieve inclusion and education is a key element of economic empowerment. This is achieved through focussed attention on manual scavengers, women and other backward communities.

The 12th 5 year plan contains the details regarding elimination of manual scavenging in section 24.26 of the social sectors document. 1. National Scheme for Liberation andRehabilitation of Manual Scavengers

(NSLRMS) hasbeen in operation since 1992.2. A total of 7.70 lakhs manual scavengers are to be rehabilitated through NSLRMS.3. Under the Rehab Scheme, manual scavengers would be given a low interest loan

of upto Rs. 5 lakhs to set up self-employment projects. As per Section 24.25:-

1. The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation bill, 2012 has been introduced in the Parliament.

2. Survey of manual scavengers in the rural and urban areas is underway.

In 1987, a list of minority concentration districts was prepared, based on a single

criterion of minority population of 20 percent or more in a district for enabling

focused attention of government programmes and schemes on these districts.

The Multi-sectoral Development Programme (MsDP) was conceived as a special

initiative of the follow up action on the Sachar Committee recommendations. It is a

Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) approved by the Government in the beginning of

the 11th five Year Plan and launched in the year 2008 -09 in 90 Minority

Concentrations Districts (MCDs). It is an area development initiative to address the

development deficits of minority concentration areas by creating socio-economic

infrastructure and providing basic amenities.

The programme aims at improving the socio - economic conditions of minorities and

providing basic amenities to them for improving the quality of life of the people and

reducing imbalances in the identified minority concentration areas during the 12th Five

Year Plan period. 

The projects to be taken up under MsDP would be related to the provision of better

infrastructure for education, skill development, health, sanitation, pucca housing,

roads, drinking water, besides schemes for creating income generating opportunities.

The objective of the scheme would be to fill the gaps in the existing schemes of the

Govt. of India by providing additional resources and to take up non – gap filling

projects (innovative projects) for the welfare of the minorities.

This initiative will be a joint effort of the Centre and the States/UTs for inclusive

growth accelerate development process and improve the quality of life of the people.

Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists and Zoroastrians (Parsis) have been notified as

minority communities under Section 2 (c) of the National Commission for Minorities

Act, 1992. As per Census 2001, the percentage of minorities in the country is about

18.4% of the total population of the country, of which Muslims are 13.4%; Christians

2.3%; Sikhs 1.9%, Buddhists 0.8% and Parsis 0.007%.

The unit of planning for implementation of MsDP would be Block instead of district

as at present. This would sharpen the focus of the programme on the minority

concentration areas as district became a big unit for this purpose. Further, this would

also help in covering the deserving minority concentration blocks (MCBs) which are

at present lying outside the present MCDs.

Religion - specific socio - economic indicators at the district level -

Literacy rate;

Female literacy rate;

Work participation rate; and

Female work participation rate; and

Basic amenities indicators at the district level -

Percentage of households with pucca walls

Percentage of households with safe drinking water

Percentage of households with electricity

Look East Policy

India's Look East policy represents its efforts to cultivate extensive economic and strategic

relations with the nations of Southeast Asia in order to bolster its standing as a regional

power and a counterweight to the strategic influence of the People's Republic of China.

Look East policy is an attempt to forge closer and deeper economic integration with its

eastern neighbours as a part of the new realpolitik in evidence in India’s foreign policy, and

the engagement with Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a part of the

recognition on the part of India’s elite of the strategic and economic importance of the region

to the country’s national interests. As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said, the Look East

policy is not merely an external economic policy; it is also a strategic shift in India’s vision of

the world and India’s place in the evolving global economy.

The Look East policy is the product of various compulsions, changed perceptions and

expectations of India in the changed international environment. The end of cold war brought

about a fundamental change in the international system, which focuses on the economic

content of relations and led to the burgeoning of the formation of regional economic

organizations. While India was opening up to the world market, it became aware of the

growing trends towards regionalism and feared that it will be marginalized from the

dynamics pushing the global economy. The economic reforms, coupled with the integrative

forces of globalization; frustration with the process of integration within South Asia and the

renewed concern about the antecedent and powerful China and its impact on India’s security,

as well as India’s unease at Beijing’s growing assertiveness in the Asia-Pacific region made

India to rethink the basic parameters of its foreign policy. In this changed international

system in the aftermath of the cold war, the success stories of the East Asian Tiger

economies and the radical shift in India’s economic and strategic circumstances caused New

Delhi to pay more attention to the rapidly growing economies of Southeast and East Asia .

In the initial stage the focus of the Look East policy was much on ASEAN. India’s conscious

efforts to forge closer economic ties with ASEAN member states paid dividends; bilateral

relations between India and ASEAN improved rapidly. India became a sectorial dialogue

partner in March 1993 in the three areas, namely, trade, investment and tourism, a full

dialogue partnership in 1995, member of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in July 1996

and finally to a Summit Level Partnership in 2002. The first phase of India’s Look East

policy was ASEAN-centred and focused primarily on trade and investment linkages. The

second phase, which began in 2003, is more comprehensive in its coverage, extending from

Australia to East Asia, with ASEAN as its core. The new phase marks a shift in focus from

trade to wider economic and security cooperation, political partnerships, physical

connectivity through road and rail links. India-ASEAN cooperation now covers a wide field,

including trade and investment, science & technology, tourism, human resource development,

transportation and infrastructure, and health and pharmaceuticals. India signed ‘Long Term

Cooperative Partnership for Peace and Prosperity’ with ASEAN, which is the corner-stone of

India’s Look East policy. India prefers to use the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation

Agreement as a template for Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), because of its comprehensive

coverage of goods and services trade as well as investment. When negotiating FTAs, India

takes the position that service trade is as important as trade in goods. India’s trade negotiators

believe the country’s economic strength lies in its services sector. Trade between India and

ASEAN countries is expanding significantly.

After nearly 16 years, the Look East policy has yielded many benefits and supported India’s

economic transformation and growth, including closer and strategic contacts between India

and Southeast Asian countries, an impressive increase in the quantum of bilateral trade and

increased people-to-people interaction. With outward looking policies India’s foreign trade,

which was below $40 billion in the early 1990s, has risen dramatically to US$ 140 billion by

2003. Foreign trade as a ratio of Indian GDP has risen from 12% in early 90s to more than

23% by 2003, pointing to increasing openness of the economy. There has also been

substantial progress in India’s trade with other developing countries and with Asia, with the

initiation of the ‘˜Look East’ policy. The share of developing counties has doubled to about

30% of India’s trade, while Asia’s share has doubled to 24.2%. In other words, about a

quarter of India foreign trade now comes from its Asian neighbours.

As a result of this initiative, India has concluded a number of bilateral and multilateral

projects, aimed at enhancing connectivity between the Northeast and Southeast Asia. In this

regard India built the 165-km long Indo-Myanmar Friendship Road connecting Tamu and

Kalaymyo-Kalewa. The other important ongoing and potential infrastructure projects are

India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway, Trans Asian Highway, India-Myanmar rail

linkages, Kaladan Multimodal project, the Stilwell road, Myanmar-India-Bangladesh gas

and/or oil pipeline, Tamanthi Hydroelectricity project and optical fiber network between

Northeast India and Southeast Asia. India and Myanmar recently agreed on the Kaladan

Multi-Modal Transit Transport Facility, which envisages connectivity between Indian ports

on the eastern seaboard and Sittwe Port in Myanmar and then through riverine transport and

by road to Mizoram, thereby providing an alternate route for transport of goods to Northeast

India. Efforts are also underway to improve infrastructure, particularly road links, at the

second India-Myanmar border trade point at Rhi-Zowkhathar in Mizoram sector by

upgradation of the Rhi-Tidim and Rhi-Falam road segments in Myanmar. Apart from

developing road links, efforts are underway to have a rail link from Jiribam in Assam to

Hanoi in Vietnam passing through Myanmar. However, the process of enhancing

connectivity between India’s Northeast and Southeast Asia is not a cakewalk because there

are also geographical, technical, political and security challenges that limit the process of

infrastructure development.