Multimedia Immersive: The Reality of Manual Scavenging in India

This immersive report tells the reality of manual scavenging — a job criminalised by law but practiced across India.

This multimedia immersive takes a closer look at some of the stories that depict India's ugly reality of manual scavenging.

(Animation: Aroop Mishra / The Quint)

Deaths of manual scavengers is a frequent phenomenon in India. But hidden behind the headlines lie real human stories.

This multimedia immersive takes a closer look at some of these stories.

These stories depict India's ugly reality of manual scavenging — a profession criminalised by the law but practiced across India.

Orphaned by a Sewer: Three Daughters Who Lost Their Father to Manual Scavenging

"Our father left the house around 7 am. At noon, a man came home and informed us that our father had died. He was cleaning the sewer and suddenly fainted. He had inhaled the poisonous gases," recalled 17-year-old Khushbu, one of the three daughters of Bjiender Kumar, a resident of north Delhi's Rohini.

A sewer cleaner in outer Delhi's Narela, 47-year-old Bijender died after opening multiple sewers in March 2021. His daughters -- Khushbu (17), Sona (14) and Anokhi (10) – are now orphaned.

The girls had lost their mother eight years ago. They had often feared for their father's health due to the risks associated with his work.

Khushbu recalled how once her father came back home from work with fever, a splitting headache, and nausea. He had “not been given any protective gear... and had inhaled poisonous gases."

When they went to the doctor, Bijender was advised to quit this risky profession. "I often asked him to leave this job but he said he was only doing it to provide for us," added Khushbu.

"And so, he continued to do that work," she said, with tears in her eyes.

The siblings have received financial aid of Rs 10 lakh from the Delhi government. The loss of their father, however, haunts them daily. "We will never get our father back," they told The Quint.

As Khushboo took out her father's wallet from a transparent polythene bag, she said, "We will never spend this money.” The black batua (wallet) and a cracked mobile phone are the only material memories that the 17-year-old and her two sisters have of their father.

"For just Rs 800, our father went to clean the sewer and lost his life."

Khushboo

'I Have a Dream': From Father to Son, A Hope to Break The Shackles

India is home to 58,098 manual scavengers, 97.25% of whom are members if the scheduled caste, according to Government of India.

Sachin Kumar is one of them.

"I don’t want my son to do the work that I do now. I want him to be a doctor," said Sachin, as he caressed his one-year-old son, Lavyansh.

When The Quint met him in 2021, 21-year-old Kumar had already spent six years working as a sewer cleaner in north Delhi – a job that he took over from his father.

It was something that Kumar, a member of the Valmiki community, was forced to pick up, after dropping out of school in class 9.

His father had done this work for 15 years. But cleaning sewers, which often requires a person to delve deep into a manhole filled with toxic gases, was never Kumar's first choice.

"My father's drinking problem peaked when I was in class 9 and he would beat up my mother and spend all that he earned on alcohol. My mother had no option but to work as a domestic help. When that wasn't enough, she started segregating garbage and reselling it to put food on the table."

Kumar told The Quint

Kumar quit school and began working as a daily wage labourer at weddings. Soon enough, he would follow the footsteps of his father and start cleaning sewers — an extreme life risk that he takes, for Rs 400 a day.

"Why should only those from the oppressed castes do this job?" asked Sachin. "I don't know why this caste system was created."

"Just because we hail from a lower caste shouldn't mean that we will do this job... The needy will take up any work they get," he lamented.

He tried doing other jobs like working at weddings but eventually returned to cleaning sewers. When The Quint met him in 2021, Sachin claimed that he had not received any training or any financial assistance from state and central governments.

"I have accepted that I can't progress anymore in life. I hope my son does better in life," he said.

Looking the Other Way: The Law That Doesn’t See

What does the law say?

The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 prohibits the employment of manual scavengers by making it punishable, and provides for the rehabilitation of their families.

How does the law define manual scavenging?

"It defines manual scavenging as manually cleaning, carrying, disposing off, or otherwise handling in any manner, human excreta in an insanitary latrine or in an open drain or pit into which the human excreta from the insanitary latrines is disposed off, or on a railway track or in such other spaces or premise."

But what's the confusion around sewer cleaners?

The act says that a person engaged or employed to clean excreta with the help of such devices and using such protective gear, as the Central government may notify, shall not be deemed to be a 'manual scavenger'.

Reality check

On paper, sanitation contractors mention that they have provided safety gear.

In reality, very often a handkerchief masked around the mouth passes off as the only "protective gear".

The sewer cleaner is given little or no protective gear at all, and therefore doesn't get counted officially as a 'manual scavenger'.

Now, do you see through the government's denial?

In 2021, Union Minister Ramdas Athawale told the Lok Sabha that two surveys had been conducted, in 2013 and in 2018, to identify manual scavengers and 58,098 manual scavengers were identified.

But while providing these statistics, he also claimed that now there are no reports of people engaged in manual scavenging as defined in the 2013 Act.

"There is no report of people engaged in manual scavenging as defined under Section 2 (1) (g) of the "Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013."

Ramdas Athawale, Minister of State Social Justice and Empowerment

So, the government says manual scavengers don't exist, right?

Let's take you to Meerut in Uttar Pradesh to show you the reality.

Don't You See Me?: The Everyday Realities of India’s Manual Scavengers

“It felt disgusting when I began cleaning dry toilets. I had no option,” said Santosh, as she remembered the day her mother-in-law took her to a neighbourhood home to clean a dry toilet in Meerut's Sardhana.

Married for barely a week, she had "felt extremely sick that day." At the time, she had no clue that this is the work she would be expected to do post marriage.

For the next 40 years, Santosh, a member of the Valmiki community, continued to clean dry toilets in Sardhana. She quit a few months after The Quint met her in Meerut in October 2021.

The existence of manual scavengers who continue to pick human faeces from toilets which have no flush, has been denied by the central government, which claims that "all identified and eligible manual scavengers have been provided assistance for their rehabilitation."

An Uncomfortable History: A Timeline of Discrimination

• After arriving in India in 1400 BC, Aryans divide society based on the colour of the conquered race.

• By 200 CE, Manusmriti – an ancient Hindu religious text on how society should run – details the four varnas, namely the Brahmins, the Kshatriyas, the Vaishyas and the Shudras. Then there are the untouchables, who are kept "outside" the caste system, relegated to cleaning professions deemed polluting to upper castes.

• The British perpetuate the caste system by constructing municipal sewers, and to clean those, they hire oppressed caste members.

• The Indian Constitution comes into force in 1950, and provides right to equality, abolishes untouchability and bans forced labour. But manual scavenging continues in violation of all the above.

• Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993, comes into force in 1997, but manual scavenging continues.

• The Socio Economic & Caste Census 2011 data reveals presence of 1,82,505 manual scavengers in rural India alone, and 26 lakh functional dry toilets.

• The Centre passes Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, but manual scavenging continues.

• The Central government says there's no proof of manual scavengers in 2021, despite ample evidence to the contrary.

The practice continues. The denials continue. The deaths continue.