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SAFAIMITRA SURAKSHA CHALLENGE

  • Vaid's ICS, Lucknow
  • 24, Feb 2022
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Why in News?

On the occasion of World Toilet Day, Union minister launched the Safaimitra Suraksha Challenge, aimed to ensure that no person needs to enter a sewer or septic tank, unless absolutely unavoidable in the interest of greater public hygiene.

OBJECTIVES:

  • It aims to ensure that no life of any sewer or septic tank cleaner is ever lost again owing to the issue of ‘hazardous cleaning.
  • To ensure the safety and dignity of sanitation workers at the core of the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U).
  • It  is also aimed at preventing ‘hazardous cleaning’ of sewers and septic tanks.
  • to mechanize all sewer and septic tank cleaning operations by 30th April 2021.

Legislation:

The Government of India has legislated The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Rehabilitation Act, 2013 to protect manual sewer cleaners.

The act aims to prohibit manual entry into a sewer without protective gears.

Initiatives:

  • The Supreme Court of India, in 2014, made it mandatory to provide Rs 10 lakhs as compensation to the families of those who have died during sewerage works.
  • The Central Government is currently demolishing insanitary latrines.
  • It provides rehabilitation package to the manual scavengers.
  • It includes access to education for children of former manual scavengers, alternate livelihood and other skill development

FACTS FOR PRELIMS

NASA’s Perseverance rover:

  • Following its safe arrival on Mars on February 19, 2021, NASA’s Perseverance rover has already spent a whole Earth year on the planet.
  • During its time on the Red Planet, the rover has accomplished a number of firsts on its ambitious to-do list, including:
  • The first rock cores from another planet were discovered and collected.
  • The base station for the Ingenuity helicopter was located here.
  • The process of extracting oxygen from sparse Martian air.
  • When it travelled over 320 metres on February 14, it set a new world record for the greatest distance travelled on Mars by a single rover in a single day.
  • MOXIE, the world’s first prototype oxygen generator, was put through its paces on Mars (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment).