Question

What does the manual scavenger community in Tamilnadu called? *​

Answer 1

Answer:

Manual scavengers are sanitation workers, and in the Indian context, ‘manual scavenging’ specifically refers to the practice of manually cleaning and disposing of human excreta from dry toilets. This inhuman job, allotted for decades to some of the most disadvantaged castes in the Indian society, has been illegal since 1993. But it continues unabated – supported by patriarchal practices and the oppressive caste system. While new technology has been developed to mechanically clean clogged sewers and drains, its prohibitive costs encourage civic contractors to instead hire manual labour that is extremely cheap in comparison. The workers that go in – nearly always without any protective gear – are exposed to sewer gas, a combination of hydrogen sulphide, carbon dioxide and methane, leading to severe health problems in the long term, or a quick death by asphyxiation on the job. More often than not, they are men in their twenties and thirties, and leave behind very young families. More often than not, the job passes on to wives, who, for lack of choice, are forced into the profession. Thanks to the stigma attached to families in such sanitation sectors, children rarely get higher education, and the vicious cycle continues, with them finding themselves as manual scavengers in adulthood.