Sanitation workers' contractualisation rooted in caste prejudice: DASAM

By A Representative 

The human rights group Dalit Adivasi Shakti Adhikar Manch (DASAM) has extended its solidarity to sanitation workers protesting across Punjab, Jaipur, Bihar, Chennai, Indore and several other parts of the country, who have been staging strikes and demonstrations demanding regularisation of employment, fair wages, social security and safer working conditions.

In a statement, DASAM criticised municipal authorities and state governments for continuing to neglect these long-standing demands, calling it a sign of institutional disregard for one of the country's most essential workforces. The organisation noted that despite ensuring public health and urban sanitation under hazardous and insecure conditions, thousands of workers remain employed on a contractual basis, receive inadequate wages, and are denied statutory benefits and social security protections.

DASAM pointed out that a majority of sanitation workers belong to historically oppressed Scheduled Caste communities who have been pushed into caste-based occupations through generations of discrimination. It argued that the continued contractualisation of sanitation work perpetuates structural caste inequality and denies workers economic security and dignity, in violation of the constitutional vision of equality and social justice enshrined in Articles 14, 15, 16, 17, 21, 23 and 42.

The organisation also said that the lack of adequate protective equipment, health insurance and regular medical checkups for sanitation workers amounts to a violation of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020, apart from breaching international labour standards.

DASAM has put forward a set of demands, including immediate regularisation of all sanitation workers, revision of wages to ensure a living wage and equal pay for equal work, and universal social security coverage encompassing provident fund, pension, health insurance, maternity benefits and accident compensation. It has also called for adequate protective equipment, mechanisation of hazardous sanitation work, regular health screenings, and the complete eradication of manual scavenging through mechanisation and strict legal enforcement.

Other demands include strict implementation of labour laws to protect workers from discrimination and arbitrary termination, establishment of grievance redressal mechanisms, and a national policy for sanitation workers covering employment security, healthcare, housing and education for their children.

The organisation further recommended that the Union and state governments set up independent monitoring committees comprising representatives of workers' unions, Dalit rights organisations, labour experts and public health professionals to review compliance with labour and safety standards, and urged municipal corporations to allocate dedicated budgetary resources for worker welfare instead of relying on outsourcing models.

DASAM said the continued neglect of sanitation workers' demands sends a troubling message about how the country values those performing its most essential and hazardous work, and called on all governments to engage in dialogue and address the workers' demands without delay, asserting that these are constitutional and human rights, not charity.