Beneath the Manholes LiesIndia's Hidden Shame

Introduction

Over seventy-five years after independence, India proudly calls itself the world's largest democracy and a rising global power. Yet, the abhorrent practice of manual scavenging continues to haunt our streets and drain systems, reminding us of the stark caste cleavages that persist beneath the veneer of modernity. This dehumanizing task cleaning sewers, septic tanks, and latrines with bare hands remains entrenched in certain communities, especially among Dalits, who are forced by circumstance and societal prejudice into this hazardous, soul-crushing work. Despite being criminalized by law, manual scavenging refuses to crumble. The Government passed the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act in 1993, and later strengthened it with the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation (PEMSR) Act, 2013. Yet, these crucial legislative milestones have failed to stamp out the centuries-old caste bondage that thruststhe nameless, faceless souls into pits of excreta, many to their very deaths.

Caste and the Painful Legacy 

This inhuman work isn't chosen; it is inherited. The deeply entrenched caste system binds entire families to the stigma of "impurity," condemning them to careers that should have vanished decades ago. Surveys and data expose the grim statistic: over 90% of those involved in manual scavenging come from SC, ST, and OBC communities. These are not isolated individuals, but generational lineages, shackled by prejudice and denied dignity. A worker known only as Karamveer shared a stark reflection: "I don't know any other work ... it has been written in our face that we are manual scavengers... we feed our children with the same hands that we use to clean sewage ... we are bound by the shackles of manual scavenging, we also need freedom." Even in death, their identity is stripped, and in life, they are viewed as invisible insects.

Legal Battles and Governmental Inertia 

When the PEMSR Act, 2013, was introduced, hopes soared. It explicitly banned hazardous cleaning ofsewers and septic tanks and promised rehabilitation and protective equipment. Yet, the passing years only deepen the tragedy. A government survey admits that only a small fraction of identified manual scavengers have received any rehabilitation, only 2.7% received capital subsidies, and a mere 31.3% received any skill development training. In Uttar Pradesh, home to over 32,000 identified scavengers, only 2.4% have received rehabilitation support. But worse, official sources often deny the problem exists. In the Lok Sabha, the government claimed there were no people currently engaged in manual scavenging in India, even while 339 deaths occurred between 2018 and 2022 due to cleaning sewers and septic tanks. Activists warn this is a gross underestimation. Bezwada Wilson of Safai KarmaChari Andolan recorded 57 deaths in 2023 alone, and many more deaths that are unrecorded.

Tragedies That Shatter the Silence

The past few years have been punctuated by gut-wrenching incidents that reveal how little has changed on the ground. In Delhi, two sanitation workers lost their lives in a sewer pit in Narela after being sent in without safety gear, a tragedy mirrored just months later at Anand Vihar, where another worker suffocated to death. In Kolkata, three men died in a manhole inside the Leather Complex in just three days after the Supreme Court reiterated its ban on manual scavenging, exposing the blatant disregard for the law. In Odisha, a single family's world collapsed when four workers, including the sole breadwinner, suffocated inside a newly built septic tank, leaving behind children who now face both poverty and stigma. And in Rajasthan, a spate of deaths in early 2025, including a 13-year-old in Fatehpur, highlighted that not even minors are spared from this fatal occupation. Each of these stories is more than a statistic; they are lives stolen, dreams buried, and families condemned to grief, all because society still finds it acceptable for some hands to clean its filth at the cost of their own lives. There is a very infamous incident that a manual scavenger used to strike his tool inside the tank before entering, if cockroaches rushed out, it was safe, but if not, he knew poisonous gas was present. One day, when he came home from work earlier than usual, his wife asked him, “why are you so early today” he told “today, the cockroaches didn’t come out”. This reflects the grim reality of how society undervalues human life.

The Unforgiving Reality

What else does this expose? A society that claims to be developed while consigning its mostvulnerable to invisible suffering. A Constitution that abolishes caste discrimination, yet is silent on its enforcement. A justice system that demands compliance but provides meager enforcement. It takes more than laws; it demands will, empathy, and relentless accountability. Manual scavenging isn't just a job but a weapon of caste oppression that stains the conscience of modern India. When someone's life is lost cleaning our filth without protection, it is a collective failure, hovering between moral disgrace and political indifference.

Conclusion

Manualscavenging originates in India, but the practice is still commonplace with people forced into it, because of rigid caste rules and lack of other livelihood options. To make "Viksit Bharat by 2047" a reality, we must uproot not only the act but also the mindset that sustains it:

1. Mechanize all sewer cleaning and enforce it legally so that no more men descend into death pits.

2. Enforce swift legal action against employers, contractors, and officials responsible. FIRs should follow every death, and survivors must receive the ₹30 lakh compensation the Supreme Court mandates.

3. Rehabilitation must be robust and scaled, with cash assistance, training, education for families,housing, healthcare, and transparency.

4. Periodic, public surveys must be mandated to identify any remaining cases, with consequences for false denials.

5. Public consciousness must rise; manualscavenging is not just unclean, it is unclean in our moral and civic commitments. Until the Indian soulreject the caste-based claim that "this is their work," and until governance affirms that no one's dignified life is disposable, India's democracy remains incomplete. Let's pledge that no life should be lost cleaning our waste. Let's honor every human with the respect they are owed and build a truly liberated, humane India.

References

1) Let’s raise a stink over manualscavenging in Karnataka, available at: http://www.msm.com/en-in/news/india (last visited on July 28, 2025).

2) Manualscavenging in India, available at: http://www.drishtiias.com/daily (last visited on June 7, 2023).

3) Manualscavenging, available at://visionias.in/current-affairs/monthly-magazine (last visited on January 24, 2025).

4) 339 lives lost to manualscavenging in 5 years in new India, available at: http://nationalheraldindia.com/india (last visited on July 27, 2023).

5) 339 lives lost to manualscavenging in 5 years, Govt. data reveals, available  at: http://thewire.in/rights (last visited on July 25 2023).

6) Key aspects of the 1993 Act Prohibiting manualscavenging, available at: http://thelaw.institute (last visited on January 3, 2024).

7) Manualscavenging: The unending pain of India’s sewer workers, available at: http://bbc.com (last visited on October 26, 2023).

8) “Hole ofshame: Manual scavenging continues in Delhi despite ban” The Times of India, August. 03, 2025.

Jawed Alam Khan and Rahat Tasneem “15 years later, Govt. scheme to rehabilitate manual scavengers has made a little progress” The Wire, march 7, 2022

Beneath the Manholes Lies India's Hidden Shame

By: Mohd Saim Sherwani, Aligarh Muslim University