Cleaning Human Waste: “Manual Scavenging,” Caste, and Discrimination in India

The Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act was passed in 1993 which made the employment of manual scavengers punishable by fines and imprisonment. The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 also recognized maltreatment and sought to provide alternate livelihoods to the workers. It outlawed not just dry latrines but manual cleaning of sewage, gutters and septic tanks without the provision of protective gear.Published by Human Rights Watch on August 25, 2014, this report examines the implementation of these Acts and highlights the gaps in their enforcement using secondary data as well as first-hand interviews. The research for this report was conducted between November 2013 and July 2014 in 14 districts across Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh. It included more than 135 interviews with people who had engaged in manual scavenging, rights activists, trade union workers, lawyers and government officials.This 104-page document is divided into five sections: Persistence of Manual Scavenging in India (Section I); Efforts to End Manual Scavenging (Section II); Abuses that Perpetuate Manual Scavenging (Section III); Barriers to Ending Manual Scavenging (Section IV); and The Way Forward (Section V).