Damned and Disposable

Manual Scavengers in Contemporary India

Bibliographic Data

ID13083157
AuthorsPraveen Jha (0000-0002-2621-6454, Jawaharlal Nehru University), Nivedita Sharma (0000-0002-1559-4214, Jindal Global Business School, O. P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana, India, corresponding author), Gurpreet Singh (0000-0002-2412-0520, Jindal School of Government and Public Policy, O. P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana, India)
Year2025
Publication date2025-09-30
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMillennial Asia (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2321-7081 • E-ISSN: 0976-3996
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/09763996251365358
OpenAlexW4414631471
LanguageEN
References cited24

The practice of manual scavenging continues to persist in contemporary India, highlighting the societal failure to address caste-based occupational hierarchies, associated discrimination and human rights violations. Despite legislative interventions and the active efforts of NGOs to eliminate this practice, significant progress remains elusive. In many cases, the work persists under the guise of sanitation, often carried out without adequate protective gear. Systemic denial by authorities and definitional ambiguities have further entrenched this inhumane practice. The lives of manual scavengers exemplify a multi-dimensional form of deprivation, extending beyond economic vulnerability to profound social marginalization. We call for the complete eradication of this practice, as no human should be subjected to such indignity

Denial · Human rights · Legislature · Politics · Responsibility to Protect · Vulnerability (computing · Work (physics · Indian History and Philosophy · South Asian Studies and Diaspora · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies

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