Rakesh, a 46-year-old desludging operator in Odagaon, Odisha, has been emptying septic tanks for more than a decade. “Being a Dalit, it gets difficult for me to enter the Brahmin households and do my work,” he said. “It is more challenging when the septic tank has not been cleaned for more than three years, as the house is stinky and soiled due to spillage.” According to Rakesh, he is often asked to enter the houses from the backdoor, as the residents fear he will make the space “impure.” Rakesh also has to enter households without gumboots due to the residents’ casteist beliefs, which “makes our work more dangerous, as there are chances to slip while emptying the septic tank.”
There are about 5 million sanitation workers in India. Over four hundred people have died cleaning sewers and septic tanks since 2018. Experts and sanitation workers in Odisha and Maharashtra told me about the challenges and health risks they face on the ground. Their struggles are exacerbated by their socioeconomic status and rampant discrimination on the basis of caste and gender. Sanitation workers also suffer from a wide range of skin and respiratory conditions, such as eczema, scaly dermatitis, and various waterborne and airborne diseases, including tuberculosis. Often, due to lack of resources, many of these conditions go undiagnosed. They experience high rates of prolonged illness and may be at increased risk of musculoskeletal disorders and mental-health conditions. The average life expectancy of sanitation workers is estimated to be around forty years, significantly lower than the national average of 67.
Several workers I spoke to complained of regular aches and pains. “The weight of the pipe that we use to clean septic tanks is unbearable at times,” Titu Naik, a desludging operator in Nayagarh, Odisha, told me. “It weighs a quintal, and we have to carry it for the entirety of the day, making three or four trips to complete our work. The burden on our shoulders is immense, and the pain it causes can be excruciating. Sometimes, the pain is so severe that we have to take a break from work for two or three days to recover, and during that time, we don’t receive any salary.”
Many told me that even if they fall sick, they cannot afford to take leave. The situation is more dire for municipal contractual workers, who earn less than half of a permanent worker’s salary, with no health benefits.