The Union Cabinet on Friday approved the extension of the tenure of the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis (NCSK) for a period of three years up to March 2028. The financial implication for the extension would be around Rs 51 crore, a government note said. The present tenure of the Commission was to end on March 31 and it has been extended up to March 31, 2028. The Commission was set up as a statutory body in 1994 under the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis Act, 1993. After the lapsing of the Act in 2024, the Commission is non-statutory, however, its scope expanded after the enactment of The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Act, 2013. Its key mandate includes, among other things, recommending to the Centre specific programmes of action towards elimination of inequities in status, facilities and opportunities for safai karamcharis, study and evaluate implementation of programmes and schemes relating to social and economic rehabilitation of safai karamcharis, and scavengers in particular. Further, it also has the mandate to investigate the non-implementation programmes and schemes for safai karamcharis, and provisions of any laws in its application to safai karamcharis and take up such matters with the relevant authorities.
