New Delhi: Tripura has the highest percentage of manual scavenger with 2.50 per cent of its rural population still engaged in this menial work, according to the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011.
Successive governments since independence have tried to eradicate this through legislation but this is still prevalent, though in very small percentage, across the country.
All India average for manual scavenger in rural India is 0.10 per cent, or 18.06 lakh, across the country.
Tripura (17,332) is followed by Mizoram with 0.92 per cent of population still pursuing manual scavenging.
As many as nine states and one union territory of Delhi has zero number of manual scavenger. The states which have eradicated this are Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Goa, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Manipur and Assam.
As far as percentage of legally released bonded labour is concerned, the all India average is 0.12 per cent or 2.06 lakh.
Tripura again has the highest percentage of legally released bonded labour with 7.31 per cent or 50,716. This is followed by Arunachal Pradesh with 0.7 per cent.
With regard to Primitive Tribal Group, the census revealed that 0.59 per cent of the total population falls under this.
The number of such group is 10.52 lakh across various states.
