On the concrete slab of an open drain in Old Town of Bhubaneswar, Purnima Sethi gathers piles of plastic bottles and pouches, broken glass bottles, iron rods and much more, covered in black sludge. Inside, her son Dhananjay stands barefoot in knee-deep waste water and pulls out the sludge and other waste with his bare hands. He puts them in a bucket and hands it over to his mother.
Prior to monsoon every year, this is the daily routine of the mother-son duo that enters open drains to de-sludge them manually. They work for a contractor, who gets the tender for carrying out Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) sanitation works, be it sweeping the roads, clearing dead trees or cleaning clogged drains.
Belonging to a Scheduled Caste community, Purnima has been manually cleaning drains in the capital city since she was 25 but Dhananjay reluctantly joined her seven years back after his father Bishnu Sethi died of tuberculosis. “I wanted to study after matriculation but there was not much money in the house to meet my educational needs and my father’s medical expenses,” said Dhananjay. Bishnu also cleaned drains for a living.
The Sethi family is among hundreds of sanitary workers in the state who manually clean drains which often carry human excreta along with other waste materials, without any protection whatsoever.
Narrow definition
It’s a narrow definition of law that keeps these sanitary workers out of the ambit of social security while denying them safety and dignity at work.
The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 (or MS Act, 2013) defines manual scavengers as people who manually clean or handle untreated human excreta from insanitary latrines or railway tracks. Under Section 2(g) of the Act, hazardous cleaning of sewer lines, septic tanks, manholes and interceptor chambers is strictly prohibited and a punishable offence.
As per reports of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Odisha had only 230 manual scavengers (till July 2024) and there are no dry/insanitary latrines (which need manual cleaning) in the state. These 230 persons have been completely rehabilitated, as per government records.
Workers like Purnima and Dhananjay scavenge all forms of waste including human waste from open drains but do not come under the ambit of manual scavenging given the definition. Because, they do not work in dry/insanitary latrines which as per official records do not exist. And going by the same definition, the Odisha government asserts that the state is free from the practice of manual scavenging which is majorly mechanised now.
The Safai Karamchari Andolan in Odisha has long been demanding identification of workers engaged for drain desiltation as manual scavengers but in vain. National convenor of the Andolan and Ramon Magsaysay awardee Bezwada Wilson said it is a fact that many houses in urban areas of Odisha do not have septic tanks even today. “Both kitchen and bathroom water and everything else comes to these drains including untreated human excreta. So, cleaning these drains should be considered manual scavenging,” added Wilson.
All the civic bodies play it smartly as they outsource the drain desiltation work to private agencies who, in turn, employ sanitary workers on a daily wage basis. Considered unskilled, these workers get roughly around Rs 430 per day as daily wage. And work without any form of protection. Only a few are under the payroll of the agencies which provide them a salary of around Rs 12,000 with EPF benefits.
No safety gear, no accountability
Considering the nature of the work, the government emphasises the workers be provided protective equipment but both private agencies and civic bodies give two hoots.
Neither do agencies provide them personal protective equipment (PPE) kits nor do the civic bodies ensure that the former abides by the norms. “Visit any part of the state and you will not come across any safai karmachari with gloves or gum boots during desiltation of drains. Only a few would have a neon jacket on their bodies,” points out Jyotiprabha Nayak, who heads the Safai Karamchari Andolan in Odisha. According to Nayak, so far, there have been no deaths in hazardous cleaning of drains but they face multiple health hazards. There have also been cases of injuries like fractures, deep cuts owing to the presence of large pieces of broken glass, iron rods, etc. “Since these are mostly daily wagers, their safety is never given priority. When an accident occurs, there is lack of accountability. Some private agencies take care of medical expenses but many do not,” she said.
Without the recognition as manual scavengers, benefits like rehabilitation aid, alternative employment, skill training under NAMASTE (National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem) scheme and health insurance also remain out of their reach.
Under the GARIMA scheme of the Housing and Urban Development department, which is the first of its kind in the country, social security benefits are extended to registered core sanitation workers across the urban local bodies who are directly involved in handling faecal matter but strangely, these benefits do not apply to the ones who get the hazardous drain cleaning work through private agencies.
Trapped by caste
Refused to be recognised by the law, poorly-paid and sans health cover, what makes the occupation worse is that it continues to be generational and deeply caste-based. Government admits that most of these workers belong to marginalised communities. In Odisha, the job of cleaning septic tanks, sewers and drains primarily rests with only one SC community - Hadi (also called Mehtar).
The Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, during various surveys to identify manual scavengers till 2021, had found that most of them belonged to SC communities including the 230 in Odisha. A reply in this regard was placed in the Parliament by Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale that year.
Although no such surveys have been done for drain desiltation workers, Puri-based SC rights activist Anil Mallick said only people from Hadi community agree to clean the septic tank and sewers - mechanically or manually - as well as the drain desiltation work. “OBCs and STs have traditionally kept themselves away from it. But generation after generation, Hadi community people have been doing the same work,” he said.
GARIMA help for social security
When it comes to manual scavenging, Odisha’s GARIMA scheme is today a successful model in the country and replicated by states like Tamil Nadu which has the highest number of manual scavengers.
Wilson said Odisha has done a good job in converting insanitary latrines into sanitary latrines and putting an end to dry latrine servicing under Swachh Bharat Mission but when it comes to drains, it has a long way to go. “The state government should shift to mechanised cleaning of drains and make it mandatory for private agencies to provide PPE kits to sanitation workers entering drains to clean them manually,” he suggested. In fact, the Orissa High Court last month asked the Cuttack Municipal Corporation to prepare a detailed plan for mechanised cleaning of both large storm-water and narrow drains, after the latter posted pictures of manual drain cleaning on social media.
Civic bodies claim that the private agencies have been asked to provide protective gear to sanitary workers desilting drains. Officials in the Housing and Urban Development department said 10,000 skilled and unskilled sanitation workers in various towns have been identified under GARIMA Yojana that would cover them under welfare and social security benefits. This includes core sanitation workers (grade-1) who are currently engaged in maintenance of sewer networks and open drain cleaners (grade-2). Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi had recently announced life insurance cover of Rs 10 lakh for grade-1 sanitation workers. “The identification is an ongoing process. We have asked sanitation workers of both the grades to enroll under GARIMA, which would guarantee them social security,” an official of the department said.
No safety
Civic bodies mostly outsource the drain desiltation work to private agencies who employ sanitary workers for the job on a daily wage basis
Considered unskilled, these workers get around Rs 430 per day as daily wage and work without any form of protection
Government emphasizes the workers be provided personal protective equipment (PPE) kits but both private agencies and civic bodies give two hoots
Social security
GARIMA scheme was launched in State in 2020 to ensure safety and social security of core sanitation workers
10,000 core sanitation workers and open drain cleaners identified under the GARIMA scheme so far
230 number of manual scavengers identified and rehabilitated by the Odisha government