Manual scavenging – a life of dignity?

Author(s): Deepa Joshi and Suzanne Ferron

Source: Waterlines , October 2007, Vol. 26, No. 2 (October 2007), pp. 24-27
Published by: Practical Action Publishing

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24685078

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 Manual scavenging - a life
of dignity?
Deepa Joshi and Suzanne Ferron

In many of India's cities, domestic dry latrines are emptied

daily, a task that has been forced traditionally on a group
considered so lowly that they were placed outside the
Hindu caste order. In spite of the fact that their 'out caste'
position and work combine to reinforce their social
ostracism, a latent fear persists, especially amongst their
elders, that their livelihoods are being phased out along
with dry latrines.

in order to identify changes they are the very basis of Hindu religion and
engaged in an occupation such experiencing. The factors mitigating culture. Hindu religion and culture
Few delight in filth or want to be
as scavenging. In the West, much
against change are numerous, not least requires the removal of faeces as far as
of the process of handling sanitary political apathy, the lack of low-cost possible from the household environ
waste is comparatively mechanized and options, a continued demand for 'low ment and determines that those consid
protective clothing must be provided cost' cleaning services, and a failure by ered most impure and polluted - the
and worn when necessary. Yet, here too, an otherwise active civil society to lowest caste groups - must perform this
it is evident that socio-economic status acknowledge this human indignity. task.
defines who does much of this work. In What is striking, but perhaps not In the caste system, Brahmans are
much of the developing South, this surprising, is the muted responses of considered to be the purest caste as a
scavengers on this issue. People who
work is still performed manually for little result of their occupational involvement
pay and with few safeguards and by a have been forced over generations to in ritual and religious activities. These
social group which has largely failed tomanually handle other's excreta are tasks are considered to be the most
evolve beyond this traditionally unsure if they can 'claim' what they superior and purest of all social activi
assigned responsibility. want. ties. At the other end of the social
The research described here exam spectrum, the Dalits (untouchables)
What is manual
ines this much-neglected aspect of have historically been assigned the
sanitation. It explores the lives and scavenging? tasks of cremating the human dead,
living conditions of scavengers in India Manual scavenging includes the handling dead animals, cutting hair and
manual lifting and removal of human nails. The Bhangis occupied the most
excreta, both from private and also polluted task - washing and cleaning
communal dry latrines. Manual empty processes associated with bodily
ing of latrines has been prevalent in excrement.

Africa and China for many years but This association with polluting tasks
this was not assigned to members of meant that Bhangis were excluded
any particular social group or gender.1 physically, socially and morally from the
In India, the task of scavenging was larger village commune. If a higher caste
historically and permanently assigned person was touched by a Bhangi, a
to one social group, known by different cleansing bath had to be taken. Brah
names in different regions, but referred mans consider that even the sight of a
to here as Bhangis, Methars or Valmikis. Bhangi requires purification by looking
This group belongs to the lowest tier - at the sun, moon or stars and rinsing
so lowly, that they were placed outside the mouth with water.
of the hierarchical Hindu caste system. Since Independence, the Indian
The assigning of the task of scavenging Government established various
to the Valmikis reflects the way that commissions and committees to look
Hindu culture perceives human faeces. into the practice of manual scavenging.
In India, the term faeces implies Most of these initiatives recommend
Women scavengers expressed their lifelong impurity and pollution, both of which upgrading the services and working
disgust for their work profane the ritual purification which is conditions of the Bhangis, but failed to

24 Vol. 26 No. 2 October 2007 waterlines

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 Ecosanitation

Box 1. Social ostracism Box 2.

2. A
A scavenger
scavenger speaks
speaks
mmÈk 'The work is done in the dark; 'Despite
'Despite the
the fact
fact that
that II cleaned
cleanedtoilets
toilets
everybody shits, but who wants to day after
after day,
day, all
all my
my hairs
hairsstand
standerect
erect
when 11 think
see and smell it? So we work at night.' think of
of it.
it. Every
Everymorning,
morning,we
we
What do they think of a system that left home
home around
around 66 a.m.,
a.m., on
onan
anempty
empty
allows one human to clean another's stomach and filled bucket after bucket

excreta? They are bitter: 'We soil of stinking faeces. Each time, the load
ourselves, so that the others can look filled, we would take the buckets to
clean'. the designated dumping grounds.
They complain that shopkeepers Where there were no open disposal
Kiaicuie ana aouse towaras scavengers will not take money from their hands: sites, the faeces would be heaped in
have persisted in many forms the money is put on a counter, water designated areas and would be carted
is sprinkled on it and then it will be away in bullock carts by Madiga men.
break the primary ties linking this casteMost members of the
handled. In most places, water taps were
group to the practice of scavenging.
community are in the cleaning provided for cleaning the bucket, the
The Employment of Manual Scavengers
profession, cleaning latrines in public broom and the tin plates. When we
and Construction of Dry Latrinesplaces like the bus stands, railway cleaned these, the faeces would stick
(Prohibition) Act, announced in 1993,
stations, hospitals and nursing to our clothes and our bodies. This
aimed to convert dry latrines into pour
homes; cleaning up excreta, urine, could be cleaned only after we
flush latrines as well as to rehabilitate blood and wastes. reached home. We had two sets of
scavengers. However, as is described clothes, one to wear while cleaning
here, there has been little success in the
as it is in any other occupation. Women faeces and one for use at home;
the
official conversion of dry latrines or the we never mixed these up. When we
by and large are the ones who manually
rehabilitation of scavengers. reached home in the late afternoon,
clean the toilets and heap the faeces
we would ask one of the elder
Ostracism and social outside the toilet (see Box 2). The men
children or our husbands to heat
ridicule haul this away, either on a tractor or a
some water to have a bath. We would
handcart or rickshaw to dump it in fields
There is ample evidence of the social also wash our clothes and hang them
outside the town. Salaries are higher for
ridicule and abuse directed at those
men and men have had better access to to dry for use the next day. This was
who perform manual scavenging. In our routine day after day, year after
rehabilitation. Male scavengers have
Kerala, decades ago, Bhangis (known found it easier to shift professions year. The stench would stay in our
as Pulayas and Parayas locally) were minds and bodies and while the men
because they have had better access to
not allowed to walk on the streets often got rid of this by drinking
alternative livelihoods and their physi
without an identifying mark. They had alcohol, this was not really possible
cal mobility is unhampered by the
to tie a broom behind them to sweep demands of childcare and other house for women. It was painful to eat the
away the imprints of their polluting feet one meal in the evening. Men,
hold responsibilities.
and hang a mud pot under their chin to especially those who were not doing
spit into, so that their spit would not Government rehabilitation this work, but who were cleaning
pollute the ground. In Marwar (present Government schemes for rehabilitation drains and sweeping streets, often
day Rajasthan), they had to call out drank tea and ate snacks when they
have been extremely short-sighted.
'Payse! ' (keep distance) and wear a could afford it but we women did the
Lacking any sensitivity to the need for
crow's feather on their turban. Social
moral, economic and social rehabilita whole day's work on an empty
ostracism has persisted in many forms as stomach.'
tion, the programme announces buffalo
this current research shows (see Box 1 ). Chandro, a 65-year old woman
rearing, material shops, petty trading,
Apart from physical isolation and from Hyderabad
vegetable selling, auto-driving as
social and moral abuse, there was also
potential livelihoods for traditional
significant economic disparity between
scavengers. The programme process
the Bhangis and other groups, legiti
itself was fraught with problems; there
mized by the Hindu religion. Hindu
is significant resistance from the banks
sacred law or dharma forbade some
to lend money to ex-scavengers -
castes (and women) from acquiring
identified traditionally and by religious • *

wealth and property. Both men and

doctrines as 'not capable of property
women were engaged in scavenging,
ownership and enterprise'. The identifi ħ
îi,'
however Bhangi women formed the
cation of beneficiaries was equally
great majority of individual household
flawed, the elderly, non-literate and
dry latrine cleaners, servicing the toilets
women, essentially the ones needing
of the female social elite.
rehabilitation most, were less 'eligible'
Gender disparity amongst the
for this programme. Some were too old Women generally are the ones who
community of cleaners is as prevalent manually clean the toilets and heap the
to cope with this economic rehabilita faeces outside the toilet

waterlines Vol. 26 No. 2 October 2007 25

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Ecosanitation
tion; others couldn't cope with the
Box 3. Losing
application procedures - especially
'We are losing
since education, too, has been long
government
government uses uses the
denied to this social group, especially
tell people
to its women. As seen in Metharwadi,
employ us us any
Hyderabad, the whole rehabilitation
specific reference
process has spawned an ugly divide
toilet cleaner advertisement which
within the community, with a few
'better-off' Methar households becom
ing unofficial, illegal brokers in the
rehabilitation process.
'We have got so many forms filled
for us, and gone so many times to
different people, but nothing works.
Can you help my son find a job?' asked
Chandra, a frail and ailing 60 year-old
ex-scavenger. 'They [the 'brokering'
Methar family] do not help, the money
we are asked to secure a job, a loan, is
beyond our reach.'
It is such desperation and lack of
realistic opportunities that makes some
people assert that they do not want to
change their age-old profession. The
Methars in Metharwadi have conflicting
views on the termination of dry latrine
scavenging in Hyderabad. The burden
of handling human faeces daily is a
heavy one, yet they sense a loss of
their place in a changing society with
the termination of this age-old, socially
defined occupation (see Box 3).
As households personally or
through subsidies, upgrade their dry
latrines to pour-flush ones, the absolute
necessity for a scavenger decreases.
Scavengers were linked to their cleaning
households through strong inter
generational links. Scavenging rights to
serviced households passed from father
to son, or mostly mother-in-law to
daughter-in-law through a process
known as 'badili'. Keeping with this
traditional practice, some scavengers
continue to clean pour-flush latrines,
with little change of payment. But, this
patronage practice is steadily declining.
Bhangi responses
It is obvious that there is neither much
awareness of, nor faith in, the
government's narrowly conceived
rehabilitation schemes. In their absence,
some scavengers capitalize on their
'irreparable' polluted identity.
The narrow lanes of Metharwadi are
filled with temples or rather clinics of
Methar faith healers promising to cure
diseases, find employment, destroy
26 Vol. 26
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more among us, who remain manual
Losing employment
employment
scavengers'. He explains that the
losing our
our employment.
employment.The The
problems of alcoholism, poverty,
the TVTV and
and radio
radiototo
unemployment and illiteracy are the by
people that
that they
they don't
don't need
need to to
products of this age-old imposition of
any more'.
more'. (This
(This isis in
in
cleaning up other people's excreta. He
reference to
to aa recent
recent Harpie
Harpic
also argues that, 'abolition has to be
done primarily by groups of manual
states that one can easily clean one's
scavengers themselves in the face of an
own toilets.) 'If we presume this is to
exposed lack of political will by the
our benefit, then we need to adopt
government and shameless apathy by
other occupations. What will we
the so-called civil society.'
become - barbers, washermen? - and
Manual scavengers seem to be
will those traditionally engaged in
caught in a vicious circle. A historically
this work allow us this change?'
assigned occupation continues due to
One man claims that in the old
the demand for the services and the
days, 'If we didn't go to work for two social and economic constraints on
or three days, there would be people
their own upward mobility. Scavengers
calling at our doors. When we went
are well aware that they are tolerated in
in the early morning, with a broom
the larger Hindu community only if they
and a bucket, the men folk of the
internalize the ethos of scavenging.
houses would be standing there with
While supporting the campaign, there is
an oil lamp and calling, "Please
still fear of being publicly vocal.
Methar, come and clean our toilets."
This also relates to the fact that SKA
Some would literally plead with us.
volunteers were threatened with jail
They had no choice. If we didn't
sentences when they voluntarily
clean, they could not defecate.
demolished functional dry latrines
Nowadays, they tell us that we are no
across the state, structures long defined
longer needed. Of the 40 households
as 'illegal' by constitutional decree.
my wife and I serviced, the number
The elderly are stoic in accepting the
has decreased now to 15 or 16'.
occupation: 'It is our job to lift dead
animals, to clean faeces, to clean gutters
enemies, find love - the wish list is as and drains. We have to do it because
long as one desires. Long queues of we are Bhangis'. This entrenched
Hindu and Muslim clients say that attitude is echoed all too clearly, in the
Methars, who were earlier known only
justification by the upper castes:
to cure snake bites and other poisonous 'Shepherd, bhangi, carpenter, each one
infestations, may now be able to heal a does what's assigned to him. Each one
wider range of illnesses. They suggest is proud of their own status' (ibid). This
that healing power is based on a potent attitude was also reflected in the views
combination of an entrenched polluted of Gandhi: 'The Bhangi (Methar) does
identity, who can touch, absorb and for society what a mother does for her
scour evil, and the invocation of child - washes off the dirt and ensures
favours from gods, goddesses, and his health... I term them as Harijan - the
spirits who are feared and not ap children of God' (Gandhi).
proached by most others.
One organization, headed by an ex
scavenger that is actively campaigning
is the Safai Karmachari Association in
Andhra Pradesh. The SKA's position is
uncompromising - they demand the
total abolition of manual scavenging.
Trade unions and even Dalit groups
have demanded that the SKA organize
manual scavengers into a union to
demand better wages and living
conditions but their leader, Wilson,
Methars, employed by the Municipal
argues against this, saying that 'we can
Corporation, still do not have adequate
only be powerful when there are no safety equipment.
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New cleaning jobs
Growth and expansion of the city
opened new opportunities for Methars,
but the tasks remain the same. Methars
now clean up and dispose of faeces,
human and other wastes in hospitals;
they clean toilets in official institutions,
hotels, cinemas, schools, factories and
shopping malls.
The reality is that even if all dry
latrines were demolished, the task of
scavenging and cleaning filth continues
to be the occupation of Valmikis, who
fill the ranks of the lowest order 'clean
ing' employees in private and official
sanitation institutions.
Workers in the Sultan Shahi office of
the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water
Supply and Sanitation Board broke into
raucous laughter, when the researcher
listed the safety equipment supposed to
be provided to them, as mentioned to
her by the senior Board officials (gas
mask, oxygen breathing apparatus,
portable air blowers, safety belts,
inhalators, gum boots, driver's suits and
rubber gloves).
'Permanent workers get a petty
allowance to buy soap and oil (to rub drains, nalas, sewers, septic latrines
on the body before immersing in the
drains). Temporary workers buy these private sweepers and cleaners for little
with their own money. Privatization
involves contracting out cleaning work
- thus all contract workers are tempo
rary. Sewerage workers dying from
health hazards outnumber those who
die from old age. In 2004,10 permanent
and 3 temporary workers died during
work.'
Compared to official permanent work,
practice of dry latrine scavenging has
temporary and private employment
offers low salaries, no job security,
benefits or welfare. In fact, Methars
continue to service and clean toilets -
in poorly paid, temporary, no-benefits
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Ecosanitation
jobs in the much-acclaimed Gandhian The caste stigma persists even for
social rehabilitation initiative, 'Sulabh those who have moved away com
Shouchalaya' (sanitary toilets), now pletely from scavenging.
known as 'Sulabh International'. Arvind Bidla, a young man of around
Better investment and planning in 30 says, 'I'm dressed like you, have
sanitation services and better working completed my undergraduate education,
conditions for those engaged in this have a non-cleaning job and am also a
occupation hold the promise of some local politician. I move around with
reform but not social rehabilitation. But,upper-caste Hindu leaders and they
sanitation is not high in the priorities ofseem to accept me as one of them. But I
politicians or the administration. Publicknow that when I turn away to go, they
health officials estimate sanitary will say, "that Methar". My caste
coverage at less than 30 per cent for identity will not leave me easily.'
Andhra Pradesh. Municipalities can The fight against scavenging will
raise 90 per cent loans under the only be won when there is a massive
Integrated Low Cost Sanitation change in attitude both amongst the
Programme, but this does not often oppressed and the oppressors. Innova
happen and water supply, not sanita tive planning and compensation that
tion, is still the main vote winner. considers all the social, political and
For the majority of scavengers in economic aspects of rehabilitation is
smaller towns and villages nothing required to erase centuries of degrada
much has changed despite the passage tion of a society and its people.2 In
of time and the growing demand for more practical terms, a life of dignity for
pour-flush latrines. On the one hand, inthose involved in scavenging can only
the absence of any meaningful rehabilicome about when the occupation is
tation, there is a growing feeling of adopted by choice, open to all, offering
redundancy and insecurity. On the benefits which enable a safe, secure and
other hand, they continue to clean dignified livelihood.
About the authors
and pit latrines working as municipal or
Deepa Joshi is a social anthropologist,
currently working with Winrock Interna
remuneration and without adequate
protection. tional in Washington DC. Suzanne
Ferron works as a freelance consultant
In earlier times, they used their own
tins, brooms and buckets to clean dry on water, sanitaiton and hygiene and is
based in the UK.
latrines, now they are officially provided
some tools, but manual contact with References
faeces and the social ostracization has
Feachem, R., McGarry, M. and Mara, D.
not ended.
(1977) Water, Wastes and Health in Hot
In larger towns and cities the Climates. John Wiley and Sons,
Chichester, UK.
stopped, partly due to legislation, but Ramaswamy, G. (2005) India Stinking:
Manual scavengers in Andhra Pradesh
mostly due to the shift in attitudes and and their work, Navayana Publishing,
beliefs that toilets are a luxury, rather Pondicherry, India.
than polluting entities.
No. 2 October 2007 27
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