Manual Scavenging in India: A Disgrace to the Country

THIS BOOK SEEKS to highlight the limited results within India of the initiatives to find alternative employment for the scavengers (and their families) who clear away human excreta. It describes how the scavengers fit within India’s caste system and how their numbers have grown during the twentieth century. It also considers the limited achievements of the many initiatives taken by central and state governments in India since Independence to improve conditions for them or to find them alternative sources of employment. This includes a description of various non-government programmes, including Sulabh International’s large-scale programme to provide toilet facilities that do not need scavengers to clear them. It ends with a discussion of future prospects for eliminating manual scavenging of human excreta.