Section 2 — Definitions.

2. Definitions.—(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,— 

(a) “agency” means any agency, other than a local authority, which may undertake sanitation 

facilities in an area and includes a contractor or a firm or a company which engages in development 

and maintenance of real estate; 

(b) “appropriate government”, in relation to Cantonment Boards, railway lands, and lands and 

buildings owned by the Central Government, a Central Public Sector Undertaking or an autonomous 

body wholly or substantially funded by the Central Government, means the Central Government and 

in all other cases, the State Government; 

(c) “Chief Executive Officer”, in relation to a Municipality or Panchayat, means, its senior-most 

executive officer, by whatever name called; 

                                                           
1. 6th December, 2013, vide notification No. S.O. 2989(E), dated 1st October, 2013,  see Gazette of India, Extraordinary, 

Part II, Sec. 3(ii). 

2. Subs. by Act 17 of 2015, s. 3 and the Second Schedule, for “the notification” (w.e.f. 13-5-2015).  



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(d) “hazardous cleaning” by an employee, in relation to a sewer or septic tank, means its manual 

cleaning by such employee without the employer fulfilling his obligations to provide protective gear 

and other cleaning devices and ensuring observance of safety precautions, as may be prescribed or 

provided in any other law, for the time being in force or rules made thereunder; 

(e) “insanitary latrine” means a latrine which requires human excreta to be cleaned or otherwise 

handled manually, either in situ, or in an open drain or pit into which the excreta is discharged or 

flushed out, before the excreta fully decomposes in such manner as may be prescribed: 

Provided that a water flush latrine in a railway passenger coach, when cleaned by an employee 

with the help of such devices and using such protective gear, as the Central Government may notify 

in this behalf, shall not be deemed to be an insanitary latrine. 

(f) “local authority” means,— 

(i) a Municipality or a Panchayat, as defined in clause (e) and clause (f) of article 243P of the 

Constitution, which is responsible for sanitation in its area of jurisdiction; 

(ii) a Cantonment Board constituted under section 10 of the Cantonments Act, 2006  

(41 of 2006); and 

(iii) a railway authority; 

(g) “manual scavenger” means a person engaged or employed, at the commencement of this Act 

or at any time thereafter, by an individual or a local authority or an agency or a contractor, for 

manually cleaning, carrying, disposing of, or otherwise handling in any manner, human excreta in an 

insanitary latrine or in an open drain or pit into which the human excreta from the insanitary latrines 

is disposed of, or on a railway track or in such other spaces or premises, as the Central Government or 

a State Government may notify, before the excreta fully decomposes in such manner as may be 

prescribed, and the expression “manual scavenging” shall be construed accordingly. 

Explanation.—For the purpose of this clause,— 

(a) “engaged or employed” means being engaged or employed on a regular or contract 

basis; 

(b) a person engaged or employed to clean excreta with the help of such devices and 

using such protective gear, as the Central Government may notify in this behalf, shall not be 

deemed to be a „manual scavenger‟; 

(h) “National Commission for Safai Karmacharis” means the National Commission for Safai 

Karamcharis constituted under section 3 of the National Commission for Safai Karmacharis Act, 

1993 (64 of 1993) and continued by Resolution of the Government of India in the Ministry of Social 

Justice and Empowerment vide No.17015/18/2003-SCD-VI, dated 24th February, 2004 and as 

amended from time to time; 

(i) “notification” means a notification published in the Official Gazette and the expression 

“notify” shall be construed accordingly; 

(j) “occupier”, in relation to the premises where an insanitary latrine exists, or someone is 

employed as a manual scavenger, means the person who, for the time being, is in occupation of such 

premises; 

(k) “owner”, in relation to the premises where an insanitary latrine exists or someone is employed 

as a manual scavenger, means, the person who, for the time being has legal title to such premises; 

(l) “prescribed” means prescribed by the rules made under this Act; 

(m) “railway authority” means an authority administering railway land, as may be notified by the 

Central Government in this behalf; 

(n) “railway land” shall have the meaning assigned to it in clause (32A) of section 2 of the 

Railways Act, 1989 (24  of 1989); 



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(o) “sanitary latrine” means a latrine which is not an „insanitary latrine‟; 

(p) “septic tank” means a water-tight settling tank or chamber, normally located underground, 

which is used to receive and hold human excreta, allowing it to decompose through bacterial activity; 

(q) “sewer” means an underground conduit or pipe for carrying off human excreta, besides other 

waste matter and drainage wastes; 

(r) “State Government”, in relation to a Union territory, means the Administrator thereof 

appointed under article 239 of the Constitution; 

(s) “survey” means a survey of manual scavengers undertaken in pursuance of section 11 or 

section 14. 

(2) Words and expressions used and not defined in this Act, but defined in the Cantonments Act, 2006 

(41 of 2006), shall have the same meanings respectively assigned to them in that Act. 

(3) The reference to a Municipality under Chapters IV to VIII of this Act shall include a reference to, 

as the case may be, the Cantonment Board or the railway authority, in respect of areas included within 

the jurisdiction of the Cantonment Board and the railway land, respectively.