How Karnataka manages its faeces
Thirty years after banning manual scavenging under the Night Soil Carrying System Abolition Act, Karnataka is still a fair way away from flushing it out of the system. On April 25, 2003, though, a minuscule step was taken in this direction when the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) inaugurated a mobile mechanised suction machine to clean soak pits holding human excreta.
The device, also known as a septic tank machine, promises to give some succour to workers who currently carry out this activity by hand in about 1.5 lakh houses within the state capital as well as on its periphery. Soak pits exist in those largely residential localities of Bangalore where dry toilets are in use since there is no provision for underground drainage (UGD).
Once every few days, night soil workers