The government on Tuesday said 249 of 766 districts had declared themselves free of manual scavengers.

Responding to a question in the Lok Sabha, Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale said that, in compliance with a Supreme Court order, states and Union territories were provided survey guidelines and requested to conduct a survey of manual scavengers after constituting district-level survey and other committees.

"Out of 766 districts, 249 districts have declared themselves as manual scavengers free and uploaded the certificate on the portal," Athawale said in a written response.

A mobile application and a portal have been developed to capture data on manual scavengers and insanitary latrines in urban and rural areas, if any, the minister added.

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