MANUAL SCAVENGING

Manual scavengers say “ It is safer to be a soldier serving in Kashmir than a sewer worker in
India.”
This note deals with the problem of manual scavenging in India as a form of caste and
occupation based social exclusion. It tries to explore the causes and reasons for the continuance
of this social evil in India.
The day everyone in India gets a toilet to use, I shall know that our country has reached the
pinnacle of progress said Jawaharlal Nehru but the question is who will clean it? Do you think a
simple flush button or any toilet cleaner make it clean? The answer will be a very big NO. It
often involves using a tinplate, broom, and bucket in hands. They’re the people nobody sees.
Basically, Manual scavenging refers to the practice of manually cleaning, carrying, disposing or
handling in any manner, human excreta from dry latrines and sewers using the most basic of
tools such as buckets, brooms and baskets with bare hands.There isn’t any kind of trash that they
don’t pick up. Filth, broken bottles lurking in darkness mark their bodies with scars and cuts,
dead animals like rats, cats, dogs are the part of social atrocities that these workers face, they
often come across sewer gas contains methane, hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide.  
The term social exclusion is of relatively recent origin; however, it encompasses a wide range of
social and economic aspects. Different scholars decipher this notion in various contexts. Broadly,
it indicates the relative deprivation of any person or group of persons on various predetermined
criterion. Caste based occupational groups in India, like that of manual scavengers, constitute
one such socially, economically, psychologically and politically marginalised section of the
society. Although manual scavenging was banned twice (in 1952 and 1993), this practice still
continues in various pockets of the country under different names.
In India, there are constitutional and legislative prohibitions on “untouchability” and manual
scavenging. However, women and men continue to be engaged in manually cleaning human
excrement from private and public dry toilets, open defecation sites, septic tanks, and open and
closed gutters and sewers. They usually embark upon manual scavenging because of traditional
caste-based roles that leave them few, if any, alternate employment options, a situation
perpetuated by poor implementation of laws and policies prohibiting this practice.
Historically, civil, social, and economic life in India has been regulated by the caste system—a
system of social stratification that designates ranked groups defined by descent and confined to
particular occupations. Caste-based social organization is governed by custom and is enforced
socially and economically. Irrespective of the religion practiced by an individual, caste in India is
hereditary in nature. A community’s caste designation has long had a significant impact on the
ability of members of that community to control land and other productive resources,
establishing broad congruence between caste and class.
Dalits are relegated to the bottom of the caste hierarchy. They have been traditionally limited to
livelihoods viewed as deplorable or deemed too menial by higher caste groups— including as
manual scavengers, leather workers, and cobblers, among others. Their caste designation also
renders them socially “polluted” or “untouchable” and is used to justify discriminatory practices.
As a result, in parts of India, Dalit communities are still denied access to community water
sources, denied service by barbers, served tea in separate cups, barred from entering shops,
excluded from temples, and prevented from taking part in community religious and ceremonial
functions. While India’s constitution and other laws guarantee equal status for all citizens and
outlaws untouchability practices, various forms of discrimination persist. Even under existing
law, Muslim and Christian Dalits are not included as Scheduled Castes and thus are not eligible
for the same protections as Hindu Dalits under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes
Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989. The persistence of untouchability has been condemned by
many Indian leaders, including then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who likened caste
discrimination to apartheid. Political and rights movements have broken some caste barriers, but
caste continues to be used to justify discriminatory, cruel, and inhuman treatment inflicted upon
millions of Indians—especially in areas of rural India where caste-designation still dictates rigid
roles and entitlements.
The Indian government has passed laws and adopted policies aimed at ending caste
discrimination, but has done too little to address widespread failure to implement these measures
and the role of local government officials in perpetuating discriminatory practices.
Within the caste structure, Dalits who work as manual scavengers are usually from the Hindu
Valmiki sub-caste, which is further subdivided into regionally named groups such as Chuhada,
Rokhi, Mehatar, Malkana, Halalkhor, and Lalbegi, or the Muslim Hela subcaste. These
communities are held at the bottom of the social hierarchy and, accordingly, face discrimination
even from within the Dalit community. Considered fit for only the most “polluting” labor, their
role is to manually dispose of human excrement and perform other unsanitary tasks.
The International Labor Organization (ILO) distinguishes three forms of manual scavenging: 1)
removal of human excrement from public streets and dry latrines, 2) cleaning septic tanks, and 3)
cleaning gutters and sewers. These tasks are subdivided by gender: 95 percent of private and
village toilets are cleaned by women; both women and men clean open defecation from roads,
open areas, and open gutters; and men typically clean septic tanks, closed gutters, and sewers.
The exact number of people who continue manual scavenging is disputed, with government
estimates significantly lower than those by civil society groups. In March 2014, in an effort to
resolve this, the Supreme Court of India estimated that there are 9.6 million dry latrines that are
still being cleaned manually by people belonging to the Scheduled Castes. The Social Justice and
Empowerment minister, Thaawar Chand Gehlot, told the Indian parliament in August 2014:
“The practice of manual scavenging, arising from the continuing existence of insanitary latrines,
still persists in various parts of the country.” Neither the Supreme Court estimate, nor Gehlot’s
statement, however, take into account manual cleaning of open defecation from roads and other
areas, removing excrement flushed into uncovered drains by private households in rural, semi-
urban, and underdeveloped urban areas, or manual cleaning of private and government septic
tanks.
In accordance with the traditional jajmani system, in which service and artisan caste households
serve upper caste households or jajmans in the village, women who clean toilets in private
households generally “inherit” this practice when they get married, joining their mothers-in-law
in the daily rounds of collecting excrement and carrying it in baskets to the outskirts of the
settlement. Human Rights Watch found that manual scavenging communities, consistent with
traditional housing arrangements, continue to reside in separate enclaves in villages, and even in
some urban areas.
Women who clean dry toilets in rural areas sometimes receive little or no cash wages, reflecting
long-established customary practices, but instead receive daily rations of leftover food, grain
during harvest, old clothes during festival times, and access to community and upper caste land
for grazing livestock and collecting firewood—all given at the discretion of the households they
serve. After collecting and disposing excrement from each household, they still return to each
home to collect leftover chapatis or rotis (unleavened bread) as compensation. In areas where
untouchability practices are intact, food is dropped into their hands or thrown in front of them.
For people who practice manual scavenging, untouchability and social exclusion are inextricably
linked. Manual scavenging is itself a form of caste-based violence and needs to be understood
that way. It is degrading, it is imposed upon very vulnerable people, and in order to leave manual
scavenging, they have to make themselves even more vulnerable— they risk backlash, they don’t
know how they will live says a manual scavenger.
Women engaged as manual scavengers face pressure from the community and family to continue
this practice because their households have few other options for livelihoods. These are often the
poorest and most marginalized communities in India, where even food security is a serious
challenge. While men from manual scavenger communities may work as day laborers, their
income is unreliable. Without access to a consistent income, families rely on the food handouts
women receive daily for survival.
Women and men employed as sanitation workers by local government panchayats and municipal
corporations also said that they do this work because they have no other livelihood options.
Those that practice manual scavenging are routinely denied access to communal water sources
and public places of worship, prevented from purchasing goods and services, excluded from
community religious and cultural events, and subjected to private discrimination from upper-
caste community members. For instance, a temple in Rudawal town in Bharatpur district,
Rajasthan, is a popular pilgrimage destination. Valmiki families clean garbage and open
defecation from around the temple, but are not themselves allowed to enter the temple. While the
Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955, prohibits obstructing access to water sources on the basis of
untouchability, people working as manual scavengers are often excluded from water sources in
their communities. Children of manual scavengers also confront discrimination within schools
from both teachers and classmates, resulting in particularly high dropout rates. On July 5, 2014,
parents from the Valmiki community in Ratanpur village, in Surendranagar district, Gujarat,
confronted teachers at the government school after learning that their children were made to
come to school early in order to clean toilets.
While more studies need to be conducted, a 2013 report submitted to the UN by Rashtriya
Garima Abhiyan notes that the direct handling of human excreta involved in manual scavenging
can have severe health consequences, including constant nausea and headaches, respiratory and
skin diseases, anemia, diarrhea, vomiting, jaundice, trachoma, and carbon monoxide poisoning.
These conditions are exacerbated by widespread malnutrition and inability to access health
services.
Government intervention on behalf of manual scavenging communities is not only critical to
addressing their longstanding social and economic exclusion, but will also provide impetus to
households and local officials who rely upon manual scavenging rather than implementing
existing government programs to modernize sanitation.
There have been various efforts by the government, civil society organizations, and the foreign
donor community to end manual scavenging. However, as documented below, there are
significant barriers to achieving lasting change. Overcoming them requires a serious commitment
from the government to ensure adequate programs are in place and to hold officials at all levels
accountable for implementing laws and policies aimed at ending manual scavenging.
The Indian constitution abolishes “untouchability.” It also prohibits caste-based discrimination in
employment. The specific prohibitions on untouchability are set out in the Protection of Civil
Rights Act, 1955, and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act,
1989. In 1949, soon after independence, the Indian government began appointing committees to
address manual scavenging. The 1955 Protection of Civil Rights Act made it an offense to
compel any person to practice scavenging. The 1993 Employment of Manual Scavengers and
Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act criminalized employment of manual scavengers
to clean dry latrines. Most recently, on September 6, 2013, Parliament passed The Prohibition of
Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 (2013 Act). The 2013
Act outlaws all forms of manual scavenging, beyond just dry latrines, prescribes penalties for
those who perpetuate the practice, protects those who actually engage in it, and obligates India to
correct the historical injustice suffered by these communities by providing alternate livelihood
and other assistance. Among other provisions designed to strengthen protection for Dalits and
tribal groups, the ordinance makes it a crime to make, employ, or permit anyone to do manual
scavenging.
The Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act,
1993 This law made employment of “scavengers” or construction of dry toilets punishable by
imprisonment for up to one year and a fine of Rs.2000 [US$33] subject to increase by Rs.100
[US$1.70] each day for continuing violations. Despite these prohibitions, the law did not succeed
in ending manual scavenging. This is in part due to the federal structure of governance in India.
Implementation of most laws, once enacted in parliament, is the responsibility of the state
governments. In the two decades since the law passed, it is widely accepted that states have not
done enough to enforce the 1993 Act, or even to examine the scale of the problem. In the face of
widespread failure by state governments to adopt and implement the 1993 Act, Safai Karmachari
Andolan and six other organizations filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court of India in 2003.
Arguing that manual scavenging was illegal and unconstitutional, the petitioners requested the
court to direct the central and state governments to take timebound steps to eliminate the
practice. According to Bezwada Wilson, founder of Safai Karmachari Andolan, this public
interest litigation sought to require the central and state governments to account for the
persistence of manual scavenging. In April 2005, a Supreme Court bench directed all state
governments and all ministries and corporations of the central government to file affidavits
within six months reporting the prevalence of manual scavenging, use of funds earmarked for
ending manual scavenging, and progress toward rehabilitating manual scavengers.
Legislative attempts to end manual scavenging have been accompanied by administrative
programs, referred to as schemes, and policies directed at converting India’s sanitation system
and at helping communities engaged in manual scavenging seek alternate livelihoods. The
responsibility for implementing these schemes and policies rests with a number of different
government departments, which often do not coordinate their efforts. India has allocated
resources to modernize sanitation.National sanitation schemes aimed at modernizing human
waste management include the Integrated Development of Small and Medium Towns Scheme
(1969), Sulabh Shauchalaya (simple latrines) Scheme (1974), the Integrated Low Cost Sanitation
Scheme (1981), the Low Cost Sanitation for Liberation of Manual Scavengers Scheme, 1989,
and the Total Sanitation Campaign, 1999, renamed Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India
Campaign). These sanitation schemes have not, however, succeeded in transforming India’s
sewage disposal system. According to the latest data from WHO and UNICEF, India has over
792 million people without access to improved sanitation—nearly a third of the estimated 2.5
billion people without sanitation globally. India also leads globally as home to over half of all the
people in the world who practice open defecation, an estimated 597 million people. Despite
making good strides in increasing the number of people with improved access to water, India has
lagged behind in meeting its Millennium Development Goal related to sanitation. Parasitic
diseases and infections like tuberculosis that are linked to poor sanitation, and particularly open
defecation, moreover, contribute to stunting and cognitive deficits among children, and increase
rates of child mortality.
The continued practice of manual scavenging lessens the urgency in some communities of
implementing these schemes. In fact, where people refuse manual scavenging work and are
supported in doing so, households are forced to change their sanitation practices. Due to the
absence of widespread political will to convert sanitation systems, people continue to defecate in
the open and rely upon “insanitary latrines,” defined under The Prohibition of Employment as
Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Bill, 2013, as latrines that “requir[e] human excreta
to be cleaned or otherwise handled manually” either from the toilet itself, or from “an open drain
or pit into which the excreta is discharged.”
In 1991, the Indian government allocated almost US$ 325 million for “rehabilitating”
communities engaged in manual scavenging. Government policies for rehabilitation of manual
scavengers include the National Scheme of Liberation of Scavengers and their Dependents,
1992, and the Scheme for Self Employment for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers, which was
most recently revised in 2013.
In contrast to government failure, the success of civil society organizations in empowering
individuals to leave manual scavenging confirms that, with directed effort, it is possible to end
the practice. In 2002, Rashtriya Garima Abhiyan—a coalition of 30 community-based
organizations from 13 Indian states—started a campaign to encourage manual scavengers to
voluntarily leave the practice. At least 15,000 women “liberated” themselves from manual
scavenging through this campaign. Activists identify manual scavenging as caste-based
exploitation, educate communities about their rights under the law, and support them in taking
collective decisions to leave the practice. Without effective government programs, civil society
and community based organizations are working to generate livelihoods for individuals who
leave manual scavenging. For instance, they have piloted gender and market sensitive vocational
training. Successful programs include cell phone repair, driving, computer training, furniture
construction, tailoring, fruit selling, and shoe making.
These approaches, however, are not without their challenges. The Tamil Nadu-based Rights
Education and Development Centre (READ), for instance, reports that former manual scavengers
who sell fruits and other food items are often not able to sell in their local areas due to persistent
untouchability practices, and instead have to travel to other communities in order to earn a
livelihood.
Civil society organizations are also focusing on converting India’s sanitation systems. For
instance, Sulabh International Social Service Organization emphasizes the construction of proper
toilets and has pioneered the two-pit, pour-flush compost toilet, known as the Sulabh
Shauchalaya, an affordable sanitation model that does not require manual cleaning.
In order to raise awareness of the impact of caste-based discrimination, Dalit rights activists have
sought to generate international pressure on the Indian government. In 1996, despite vociferous
opposition from the Indian government, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination (CERD) recognized caste-based discrimination as a form of racial discrimination.
In March 2014 the Supreme Court ruled that the practice of manual scavenging was prohibited
in India under various international instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (UDHR), the International Convention on Elimination of Racial Discrimination (ICERD),
and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
(CEDAW).
India is also a party to other international conventions that reinforce obligations to end manual
scavenging, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and the Convention
on the Rights of the Child (CRC). During India’s most recent review for compliance with the
ICESCR, ICERD, and the CRC, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR
Committee), Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD Committee), and
the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC Committee) all issued concluding observations
calling upon India to end manual scavenging. Various other United Nations agencies and
international human rights bodies have also addressed manual scavenging: UNICEF has
approached manual scavenging as a water and sanitation issue; the World Health Organization
(WHO) has taken up manual scavenging as a health issue; UNDP has a special task force on the
issue of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes; UN Women addresses manual scavenging
based upon that fact that 95 percent of manual scavengers who clean dry toilets and open
defecation are women; and the ILO focuses on ending manual scavenging by supporting
implementation of relevant government policies in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh,
Rajasthan, and Gujarat.
According to Coen Kompier, senior labor specialist for the International Labor Organization,
manual scavenging can constitute forced labor because entry into this practice is entirely caste-
designated, and because people who work as manual scavengers face a “menace of penalty” that
prevents them from leaving this work. Consequences for leaving manual scavenging include
community threats of physical violence and displacement—and even threats and harassment by
local officials mandated by law to end the practice, who instead withhold wages and threaten
eviction from homes.
When people refuse to perform caste-based tasks, dominant caste groups may deny them access
to community property and property belonging to upper caste landholders. This access is crucial:
most people engaged as manual scavengers do not own land and require entry to community and
privately owned land to graze livestock, collect firewood, or even defecate in the fields.
People from manual scavenging communities are susceptible in accessing the criminal justice
system when they are victims of crime due to perpetuation of caste bias by police and local
government officials. Activists and rights groups told Human Rights Watch that police routinely
fail to register and investigate complaints of crimes against Dalits when the perpetrators are of a
dominant caste. In particular, police will not register cases under the Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act—a law crucial to protect people who work as
manual scavengers.
While the 2013 Act releases anyone doing manual scavenging from any obligation to do this
work, caste-based practices imposed by communities and replicated by state hiring practices
have made this difficult to achieve. Although India’s Equal Remuneration Act, 1976, amended
by Act 49 of 1987, requires an employer to pay women and men equally for the same work or
work of a similar nature, this protection does not extend to protecting workers from wage
discrimination along caste lines. India currently has no laws specifically outlawing caste-based
wage discrimination.
Promising policy initiatives in India often falter due to poor implementation. Programs to
rehabilitate manual scavenging communities are no exception. In their report on the 2013 Act,
the Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment noted, “successful implementation
of the new Act would largely depend on how the Corporations, Municipalities and Other Local
Bodies would be motivated and geared up for meeting the challenges to be thrown up by the new
Act.” Finally, while some surveys address only dry toilets, people are also employed as manual
scavengers to clear open defecation areas and pour-flush toilets in public places, to provide
sanitation in hospitals and nursing homes, and to clean sewers, septic tanks, drains, and railway
tracks. Many members of manual scavenging communities, however, report significant
challenges in accessing support through the panchayats, whether it is information about their
rights, identification cards and other essential documents, or proper participation in panchayat
meetings. Due to low literacy levels, itself the product of systematic caste discrimination, many
individuals engaged in manual scavenging lack information about social welfare schemes.
People engaged in manual scavenging rely upon the daily food donations they receive for
subsistence. In order to leave manual scavenging they must have immediate access to alternate
employment. These communities, however, face significant barriers to entering the labor market,
including social boycotts and economic boycotts in retaliation for refusing to clean toilets in the
village, gender- and caste-based discrimination in access to employment, and corruption, such as
being asking to pay bribes in order to be appointed to reserved government positions. For many,
these obstacles are exacerbated by low education levels and an absence of marketable skills.
Recognizing the need to facilitate access to alternate employment, the 2013 Act contains
provisions aimed at securing income—namely, training in livelihood skills and access to loans to
take up other occupations on a sustainable basis. While successful vocational training and loans
may offer long-term livelihood options, they do not meet the immediate need for employment
that households require for survival. Moreover, people from these communities report significant
difficulties in accessing and benefiting from existing training and loan schemes.
To improve the living and working condition of manual scavengers all over India, there is a need
to set an agenda for their overall transformation. It can be through provision of alternative
livelihoods, abolishment of dry toilets and imparting free education to children. There are several
possible fields in which former manual scavengers can work and earn an alternative livelihood. It
is possible to provide jobs in agricultural sector. With a little training in maths they can also
work as vegetable and fruit sellers. They can produce and sell diary products, if they are
provided with cattle. Also if they would be provided with loans and equipment like spice
grinding machines and sewing machines, it would be possible for them to set up a new business
in producing and selling spices, clothes and handicrafts.
Most urgent is the abolishment of dry latrines. By doing this, the basis for the inhumane and
existing system of manual scavenging will be removed. At the same time, there is a need to
introduce alternative toilet systems like water-seal latrines or even eco-friendly toilets. Eco-
friendly toilets are built above the ground with two chambers beneath the par collecting feacal
matter. The urine and wash water are diverted and let out into a home garden. Normally, these
toilets do not smell, because faeces are covered with dry ash, soil or lime which dehydrate it.
The life of scavengers can be improved, especially of women and children by providing them
good quality education through well-trained, open-minded teachers. Such schools should not
only implement mid-day meal scheme, but should also provide the evening food to the children
of the socially downgraded people, so that their parents will not face any additional burden of
nurturing their children. For the adult members of the scavenger community, education is
essential to train them for alternative ways of living, for example, women can have training in
sewing, packing or to work as anganwadi workers. Furthermore, other parts of society have to
become more sensitive to the needs of the neglected and oppressed dalit community. This can
happen through awareness campaigns or training courses in schools.