The Challenging Lives of Illegal Sewer Cleaners in India

More than one million members of India's untouchable caste are still required to clean latrines, sewers, and drains without any safety precautions. It is still a caste-based prevalent profession. To unblock pipes, people plunge into sewers packed with poisonous trash. This prejudice traps them here and stops them from moving ahead.

A manual scavenger has to enter the drains barefoot and without a mask. Source: TwoCircles

India presently produces 72 billion litres of sewage every day. Manual scavenging is frequently used to clean up untreated waste. Without any safety equipment, these men and women clean the local municipality's sewage and drain systems. In India, it is a prohibited practice under the constitution. In an interview, manual scavenger Vinay Luhera discusses a typical day in his life. He gets up in the morning, takes a shower, makes some tea, and then leaves the house with his toolkit employing simple equipment like thin planks, buckets, and baskets that are carried on the head. If he finds some work, he opens the sewer line. Unfortunately, some sewage lines are so deep that he must use long sticks to clear them because he is not wearing any safety equipment. He finds water after finishing the labour, washes his hands and feet, and then goes home. He repeats the same routine every day.

The majority of manual scavengers come from the caste known as the 'untouchables', or the Dalits. They continue to have one of the lowest social standings in India due to their occupation. Not only is this type of labour unhygienic, but it is also unsafe. When he opens the sewage cover, Luhera tells how frequently he becomes anxious. Anything can happen if there is no safety equipment. The health problems that manual scavengers experience include nausea, skin conditions, anaemia, and jaundice. According to Luhera, he keeps working because he must provide for his family. There are still an estimated 1.3 million persons employed in manual scavenging despite the ban on the practice.

When drains are blocked, a manual scavenger is sent down bare-bodied. Source: The Patriot

There is also the discrimination that goes along with it. Manual scavengers who clear sewers and pick up trash are despised by the public. According to Luhera, when he asks for a glass of water, people frequently put a bottle on the ground rather than giving it to him. People advised him to take the bottle with him because they won't be using it anymore. During cleaning, manual scavengers are frequently forbidden from entering people's homes and are instead told to stay outside. Scavengers like Luhera barely earn as little as one rupee. Sometimes it takes weeks for them to find any kind of work. They are obliged to borrow money from their upper-caste neighbours frequently to exist and, as a result, they are forced to continue their bondage.

Manual scavengers have stated that they frequently feel pressured to perform this activity. Due to discrimination based on their caste and occupational position, Dalit scavengers are rarely allowed to transition into another line of work and are consequently forced to continue their current line of work. Manual scavenging is not a career that employees choose for themselves; rather, it is a deeply harmful, repugnant, and degrading activity that is imposed upon these people due to the stigma associated with their caste. This stigma is then strengthened by the nature of the work itself. Caste-based manual scavenging is still being opposed by civil society organisations, although they have had limited success.