In India, city cleanliness is still defined by caste

Historical discrimination means that people at the lowest levels of the country's rigid social hierarchy are restricted to tasks such as excrement removal. At least 77 percent of India's 38,000 sewage and septic tank workers are from the Dalit community, according to data from the National Action for Mechanized Sanitation Ecosystem of India (Namaste – an acronym that refers to the traditional Indian greeting "Namaste").

Dalits are a historically marginalized group, comprising the lowest rung of India's centuries-old and discriminatory caste hierarchy.

Namaste is an organization that aims to protect sanitation workers by promoting the use of cleaning machines and providing subsidies to reduce manual labor.

In 2020, the Indian government announced measures to end the dangerous practice of manual waste scavenging—such as manually removing human excreta from toilets, septic tanks, and drains—by August 2021.

This action was part of the so-called Clean India Initiative, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, which aimed to enforce laws prohibiting the manual scavenging of feces.

Dalits “trapped” in cleaning jobs

However, despite the ban, this dirty work continues, largely carried out by Dalits.

Despite efforts to obtain other municipal jobs for which they are qualified, many Dalits report receiving negative responses in the selection process, effectively confining them to cleaning jobs.

"The government refuses to acknowledge the social reality that India is fundamentally a caste-based society," said Bezwada Wilson of Safai Karmachari Andolan, an Indian group that seeks to end manual scavenging.

"What they're claiming has less to do with facts and more to do with their own opinions," Wilson told DW. "Telling manual scavengers to buy machines themselves under the Namaste program is a cruel form of 'rehabilitation,'" he added.

"Instead of ending caste-based hiring, this simply repackages it with a modern name. Namaste is caste discrimination disguised as progress."

Castes and exclusion

Dalits are often tasked with performing the most menial and dangerous jobs, considered "impure" by religious and social standards. These jobs are passed down from generation to generation, trapping families in a cycle of social exclusion and economic deprivation.

Even among Dalits, the Valmiki subcaste has historically faced the most severe sociopolitical and economic exclusion, repression, and violence.

"Caste is seen as a result of one's past actions, condemning scavengers to a life of cleaning up other people's trash," Vivek Kumar, a professor of sociology at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, told DW.

He says the condescension of calling this work a “spiritual duty” or “noble service to society” hides the “harsh reality of discrimination.”

How to overcome the caste system

Dalits often experience segregation in housing, education, and social interactions. The association between caste and sanitation work limits this community's upward mobility and prevents them from accessing other jobs and opportunities.

Kumar explained that caste did not disappear with modernity or urbanization. Rather, it spread to urban centers and entered modern institutions such as industry, civil society, politics, and bureaucracy.

The sociologist believes that the dignity of work should be taught from elementary school to higher education to overcome the outdated belief that the work of a garbage collector is linked to birth.

“Once the connection between caste and scavenging is broken, and the work is fairly remunerated, we will see other communities taking up these jobs,” Kumar concluded.