New Delhi, July 27 - It is an inhuman practice that India banned 16 years ago. But manual scavenging, or cleaning human excreta with the hands, still exists and by the government's own admission it is late by two years in completely eradicating it.

Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Mukul Wasnik admitted in the Rajya Sabha that manual scavenging should have been eradicated two years ago, but now the target had been fixed for March 2010.

As on date, there are at least 115,000 manual scavengers, who are also considered untouchable or Dalits, identified for benefits under a 2007 self-employment rehabilitation scheme for them being implemented by the social justice and empowerment ministry.

But these are only government figures. 'This figure is fictitious,' says Bezwada Wilson, convenor of the Planning Commission's sub-group on 'safai karmacharis' (sweepers), adding there has been no proper national survey so far of their number.

'From our four-year-old survey in nine states, our conclusion is that there are at least 1.3 million manual scavengers in the country,' Wilson told IANS. And now he has initiated a survey of 252 districts in 12 states.

It was a petition by Wilson's organisation, Safai Karamchari Andolan, in the Supreme Court in 2003 which forced the state governments to start some action in 2007.

Way back in 1993, the government enacted the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act providing for imprisonment up to one year and a fine of Rs.2,000 or both.

Ironically, as sources pointed out, there are still many municipalities in the country which run dry toilets.

Wilson said: 'Not only do the civic bodies run them, the government does not even know for sure just how many dry latrines are there in the country. Without which all figures are useless. If you know how many dry toilets are there, you will know how many scavengers carry excreta from there.'

Nobody running such toilets has been punished under the 1993 Act so far.