Manual Scavenging as a profession has been in existence since ages and is practiced on the categorization of Varna System in India. The inhuman practice of manual removal of organic human excreta from dry toilets with bare hands, buckets and shovels has been justifiably prohibited by law in 1993 because of caste discrimination and untouchable face. Manual scavengers often belong to lower caste and restrained to livelihood tasks which is awful and considered excessively tedious by the higher caste people. A plethora of legislations have been enacted to create casteless and classless society, but the conditions of the manual scavengers have been persistently terrible.

It is paradoxical to state that India enacted its first legislation pertaining to Manual Scavenging in 1993 and the recent in 2013, but still such degrading and inhuman practice prevalent in the society could not be stopped. Despite technological advancement and rapid digitization the problem of manual scavenging persists in India and with it continues the dreadful deaths. Manual Scavenging is not mere a deliberate infringement of human rights rather a dishonor to the human’s compassion and injury to the dignity and reputation of a human which per se is a violation of not only human but also the constitutional right.

Author:
Aparna Singh, Assistant Professor of Law, Unitedworld School of Law (UWSL)

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