'In certain livelihoods there is no dignity'

Summing up the debasement that goes hand-in-hand with the work of manual scavenging, Coem Kompier, ILO senior specialist international labour standards, said, "There is no dignity without livelihood. But in certain livelihoods there simply is no dignity."

He was one of the speakers at the national conference on manual scavenging organised by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. The two-day conference titled 'Equality at Work: Manual Scavenging practice' was held to produce concrete suggestions to overcome caste-based employment stigmas and study technological opportunities to help eliminate scavenging in India.

Manual scavenging is removal of excreta by hand. It is a caste-based occupation and the vast majority of workers involved are women. The Centre has set a goal to completely eradicate manual scavenging by 2012. Although the exact number of people working as manual scavengers remains disputed, one estimate puts it at over 10 lakh.

"There are roughly 60,000 manual scavengers in the state. The biggest hurdle in fighting for the manual scavengers is the government's refusal to accept the fact that such a problem exists," said Manjula Pradeep, executive director of Navsarjan.

Kompier added that lack of sanitation has led to 60% of population of the county defecating in the open. There are three main forms of manual scavenging. These include removing excreta from streets (open defecation) and dry latrines, cleaning of septic tanks and gutters.