Safai Karmachari Andolan

Manual scavenging is the degrading and illegal task of cleaning human excrement from India’s roads and dry latrines. Using little more than a broom, a tin plate, and a basket, they are made to clear feces from public and private latrines and carry them to dumping grounds and disposal sites. This is mainly a hereditary occupation reserved for Dalits. Dalit manual scavengers (known as Bhangis or Valmikis, among other caste names) are compelled to undertake their task, often being prevented from taking any other job. They are the worst victims of untouchability as they are considered unclean, impure and placed at the lowest level of the caste hierarchy. Even other Dalits often consider them as untouchables. Manual scavengers, or safai karmacharis, are considered to be the most oppressed and disadvantaged of any community in India. The practice has been long outlawed; however, it continues today in most states

Social discrimination against scavengers is rampant.  Most live in segregated rural colonies and are unable to make use of common resources.  As one scavenger in Ahmedabad District, Gujarat, stated: “When we are working, they ask us not to come near them. At tea canteens, they have separate tea tumblers and they make us clean them ourselves and make us put the dishes away ourselves. We cannot enter temples. We cannot use upper-caste water taps. We have to go one kilometer away to get water.”  There are three main types of scavengers: municipality workers, contract workers, and those working in private households.  The last two groups are the worst victims since they receive no health benefits.  Government estimates suggest that there are about one million manual scavengers in India—95% are women—but unofficially the figures are much higher.  They are given no protective gear (no gloves, masks, or instruments) to carry out their work.  This work is extremely hazardous and scavengers often suffer from respiratory diseases, gastrointestinal disorders and trachoma, a disease often resulting in blindness.  In many communities, in exchange for leftover food, scavengers are also expected to remove dead animal carcasses and deliver messages of death to the relatives of upper-caste neighbors. Their refusal to do so can result in physical abuse and ostracism from the community. 

The Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act was enacted in 1993, but has proved ineffective in eliminating manual scavenging.  The Act prohibits the employment of manual scavengers or construction of dry latrines not connected to proper drainage channels and violations of the provisions of the Act can lead to imprisonment for up to one year and/or a fine of up to 2000 rupees.  However, as the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India pointed out in a 2003 report, the law had only been adopted by 16 states as of 2003, and it had not been enforced in any state.  Still today, the Act’s penal sections are very rarely implemented.  Similarly, in March 1992, the Indian government enacted the National Scheme of Liberation and Rehabilitation of Scavengers and their Dependents; however, according to the CAG report, the scheme failed to achieve its objectives despite an investment of more than 600 crore ($60 billion).  According to the National Commission for Safai Karmacharis (set up in 1993), the main reason for the unsatisfactory progress of the Scheme appears to be the inadequate attention (including misuse of funds and falsification of targets) given to it by State Governments and concerned agencies.  State governments routinely deny the existence of manual scavengers altogether or claim that a lack of water supply prevents them from constructing flush latrines.  Activists claim that the resources, including government funds, exist for construction and for the rehabilitation of scavengers; what is lacking is the political will to do so. Part of the reason why such rehabilitation schemes fail is clearly the state’s complicity in the whole process.  Many government offices and buildings still have dry latrines and municipalities employ manual scavengers to clean these latrines.

In fact, there is clear evidence that the number of both manual scavengers and dry latrines is actually increasing. In 1989 there were 600,000 scavengers while by 1995-96 the number had increased to 787,000 (a 31.6 % increase in less than a decade). Similarly, there were 720,500,000 dry latrines in 1989, but by January 2000 the number had increased by 9,600,000. With the increase of urbanization, manual scavenging is increasing. More and more Dalits are compelled to take the job as the changing economic scenario is offering less and less jobs for them.