Accepted Panels

Manual scavenging, a practice of shame and stigma attached to it is still prevalent in India. Despite constitutional and legislative prohibitions on “untouchability” and manual scavenging in India, people from particular castes continue to be engaged in manually cleaning excrement from private and public dry toilets, open and closed gutters, open defecation sites, septic tanks, and sewers. Traditional caste-based roles leave them few, if any, alternate employment options, due to poor implementation of laws and policies prohibiting this inhuman practice. Mostly women are engaged in cleaning the roads or other sanitation work specifically gendered by society for women only. They are marginalized within the marginalized group of society due to their gender identity. They are unaware of their rights due to less exposure to education within the community. Women from the scavenging communities are deprived of basic human rights like rights to education for their whole life. There are provisions and policies under the “The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013” to ensure the rehabilitation of the scavengers and their families but they are a huge gap between the on-paper policies and the ground realities of implementation of the policies. This paper attempt to understand the lives of women engaged in this inhuman practice of manual scavenging and their rights. This empirical study is based on field data conducted in Delhi, India. The data are collected from the women currently working as scavengers. The paper recommends the need for a social transformation through the generation of awareness. Also, the strict implementation of law and policy is required by which human dignity and respect may be restored for scavenging women