The PEMSR Act is an Act of Parliament, officially titled The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013. It received the President's assent on September 18, 2013.
The Act was created to address the "dehumanising practice of manual scavenging" which persists due to the existence of insanitary latrines and a "highly iniquitous caste system". It replaced the earlier and "completely ineffectual" Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993. The 2013 Act has a wider scope, outlawing all manual cleaning of human excreta from insanitary latrines, open drains, or pits, which was an expansion from the 1993 Act's focus primarily on dry latrines.
The core mechanism of the Act is the prohibition of the practice and the rehabilitation of those engaged in it. Section 5 prohibits the construction of an insanitary latrine and the engagement or employment of a manual scavenger. Furthermore, Section 7 prohibits the engagement of any person for the "hazardous cleaning" of a sewer or a septic tank unless the employer provides protective gear and observes safety precautions. The Act mandates that local authorities must conduct a survey of insanitary latrines and convert or demolish them. The offence of manual scavenging is made cognizable and non-bailable.
The PEMSR Act is deeply connected to the constitutional rights of dignity, specifically Article 17 (Abolition of Untouchability) and Article 21 (Right to Life). The Supreme Court, in Safai Karamchari Andolan v. Union of India (2014), reinforced the Act's mandate, directing that sewer deaths be treated as a crime and that the family of the deceased be awarded compensation of ₹10 lakhs. The implementation of the Act is monitored by bodies like the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis and the National Commission for Scheduled Castes.