Commentary
Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Community Medicine
Vol. 5
Issue 2
2019
pp. 36-37
Open Access

A Lens to Understand Sanitation Workers and their Health Status in India

Rejesh Bose Kannolath1
1Consultant, Health Portfolio, Tata Trusts UPHC Project PMU, Civil Lines, Nagpur, Maharashtra, INDIA.
Correspondence:

*Rejesh Bose Kannolath

Consultant, Health Portfolio, Tata Trusts UPHC Project PMU, Civil Lines, Nagpur, Maharashtra, INDIA.

rejeshbose@gmail.com

Copyright:

2019 Author(s)

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Published:27/06/2019

Abstract

It is estimated that there is around 5 million in India are employed as sanitation workers. Among them two millions are working under “High Risk” conditions. Despite of rapid growth in urbanisation and technology the working condition of these sanitation workers have remain unchanged since independence. Another inevitable concern needs to be understood while we study about sanitation workers is that it is also deeply rooted in Indian Caste system which assigns duties of sweeping, cleaning toilets, Manual scavenging to individuals from lowest sub castes of Dalit community. A sanitation worker's job is very much conceived as a job which falls under the lowest class of job when it comes to categorisation of jobs, but on reality check, it is understood that without them communities and societies can’t succeed and sustain. They forms the backbone of the civic cleaning system of any society and they performs valuable services to the society and state by collecting garbage and removing it to proper disposal areas.

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Keywords

Sanitation workers
Manual scavenging
High-risk conditions
Caste system
Civic cleaning system

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