Dying to breathe

Caste, law and the urban political ecology of manual scavenging in India

Bibliographic Data

ID5281963
AuthorsAmbarish Karamchedu (0000-0002-7661-3060, King's College London, corresponding author)
Year2025
Publication date2025-10-06
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnvironment and Planning E Nature and Space (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2514-8486 • E-ISSN: 2514-8494
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/25148486251384552
OpenAlexW4414872315
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited46

This paper explores the relationship between caste, law and the urban political ecology of manual scavenging in India. Manual scavenging, or working with human shit, is a caste occupation violently enforced onto Dalit bodies, imputing their worth as a human with their labour. This paper analyses the role of the Indian state and its institutions in producing caste-based labour for maintaining the urban metabolism of waste in Indian cities. Through an extensive literature review on caste, waste and urban political ecology I bring to bear the role of legal activism and legal enumeration surrounding the issue of manual scavenging. I unpack key legislation banning manual scavenging and public interest litigation cases in the supreme court of India to understand why the law has failed to stop the practise. I find this is because the law itself is shaped by caste as the Indian state is simultaneously the prosecutor, criminal perpetrator and employer of manual scavenging, responsible for caste death and violence. Undercounting, mislabelling of manual scavenging as 'hazardous cleaning', lack of data collection and contractualisation invisibilises manual scavenging labour in life. It also denies justice in their deaths in sewers, as they perform an essential function for the metabolism of the city

Anthropological Studies and Insights · South Asian Studies and Conflicts · Water Governance and Infrastructure

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