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 countrys 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 12 th 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 Indias foreign policy, and
the engagement with Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a part of the
recognition on the part of Indias elite of the strategic and economic importance of the region
to the countrys 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 Indias vision of
the world and Indias 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 Indias security,
as well as Indias unease at Beijings 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 Indias 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. Indias 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 Indias 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
Indias 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. Indias trade negotiators
believe the countrys 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 Indias
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 Indias 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 Indias 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 Indias trade, while Asias 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 Indias 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.