India’s Anti-Manual Scavenging Drive is Faltering, Needs Immediate Intervention

Social ostracism and lack of opportunities have forced generations of lower caste families to continue indulging in manual scavenging as their daily job.

Not often discussed in mainstream media, however, is that over 95 percent of India’s 1.3 million manual scavengers are women. In spite of such overwhelming numbers and enough evidence pointing to serious health consequences directly resulting from this kind of work, government authorities have failed to implement available laws and programmes. Manual scavenging is a degrading profession and it needs solutions that are technologically pertinent, economically driven, socially responsible, and sensitive.