Born into Bondage: Enforcing Human Rights of India's Manual Scavengers

• Author: Varun K. Aery
• Position: University of California Davis School of Law
• Pages: 719-742

e Indonesian Journal of International & Comparative Law

ISSN: 2338-7602; E-ISSN: 2338-770X

http://www.ijil.org

© 2015 e Institute for Migrant Rights Press

719

e author would like to deeply thank Professors Karima Bennoune, Angela Harris, and Anupam

Chander for their invaluable supervision and mentorship. He also wishes to convey his gratitude

to Uyen P. Lee, Free Speech & Technology Fellow with the California International Law Center

(CILC) at Davis School of Law, and Justin Lee, Davis School of Law Alumnus, for oering critical

insight on this paper and encouraging me to submit it for publication. Furthermore, he would also

like to thank the Indonesian Journal of International Law and Comparative Law for their assistance

throughout the publication process. Lastly, he conveys his thanks to his family, Arun, Parveen,

and Sonia Aery, whose constant motivation and support has made this publication possible. He

dedicates this paper to India’s manual scavengers with hope that this contributes to the elimination

of this practice.

Born into Bondage

Enforcing Human Rights of India’s

Manual Scavengers

Varun K. aery

University of California Davis School of Law

E-mail: Varun.k.aery@gmail.com

roughout India, manual scavengers are responsible for collecting and

disposing of human lth from dry latrines. Scavengers are subject to gross

violations of human dignity, extreme health risks, and social discrimination

that ensure a cycle of poverty extending for generations. Manual scavenging is

not a form of employment; it is a form of bondage that oppresses Dalit women

disproportionately. Despite enacting domestic statutes to prohibit manual

scavenging, India’s constituent governments have directly undermined

national eorts to combat this practice. is article identies and analyzes

India’s specic treaty obligations to not only eradicate this practice; it also

identies means of holding government ocials accountable for perpetuating

this human rights violation.

Keywords: Human Rights, Labor Rights, Social Rights, Foreign Law, International

Legal Obligation, Cultural Relativism.

The Indonesian Journal of International & Comparative Law Volume II Issue 4 (2015) at 719-42

Varun k. Aery

720

I remember the rst time I had to carry a basketful on my head. I slipped

and fell into the gutter. No one would come to pick me up because the basket

was so dirty and I was covered with lth. I sat there, howling, until another

woman scavenger arrived. She hosed me down and took me home. But that

day, I felt like the most unfortunate child in the whole world.”1

-- Meena, Current Manual Scavenger

I. INTRODUCTION

Imagine that from the moment you are born, society has already decided

your career. You are chosen to be a manual scavenger, tasked with col-

lecting human excrement from private and communal dry latrines and

disposing of it on a daily basis. In return for your services, you will earn

around $5.00 a month. If you demand a dierent job, you are refused,

lambasted, and ostracized by both your community and government.

is is the reality for the Dalit manual scavengers, especially Dalit wom-

en, who have been oppressed for centuries throughout India.2

According to one report issued by the Indian government, many

manual scavengers are self-employed.3 However, a great proportion of

scavengers are hired by municipal bodies as contract employees to clean

dry latrines and open sewers where human lth is disposed.4 As the quote

by Meena indicates, scavengers perform these tasks by hand, collecting

human lth in baskets, without the benet of health or safety equipment.

Scholars have explored India’s domestic legal obligations with respect

to the issue of manual scavenging. According to Samuell Permutt, India’s

parliament passed four separate statutes beginning in 1993 aimed at

1. Annie Zaidi, Manual Scavenging is Still a Disgusting Reality in Most States Despite

an Act of Parliament Banning It, Frontline (Sept. 9, 2006), http://www.frontline.

in/static/html/2318/stories/20060922005900400.htm.

2. international Dalit SoliDarity network, Manual Scavenging, http://idsn.org/

key-issues/manual-scavenging/ (last visited July 23, 2015).

3. is article will focus primarily on contract employees.

4. lok Sabha Secretariat, Manual ScavengerS: welFare anD rehabilitation, No. 18/

RN/Ref. 1, available at http://164.100.47.134/intranet/Manual%20Scavengers%20

welfare%20and%20Rehabilitation.pdf.