Bindeshwar Pathak transformed sanitation in India through the Sulabh Sanitation Movement, promoting affordable toilet technology and challenging the practice of manual scavenging. His legacy highlights the need for effective rehabilitation, safer sanitation systems and dignity for sanitation workers. He once picked up human waste with his own hands. Do not confuse it for a metaphor…
Balamala Malli’s journey from a waste picker in Guntur to a sanitation entrepreneur shows how mechanisation, skill development and financial support can transform hazardous informal work into a safer, dignified and self-reliant livelihood.
NAMASTE scheme data show rising PPE, insurance and vehicle-subsidy numbers even as rights groups say official sewer-death figures undercount fatalities NEW DELHI — The Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJE) said on September 13 that 90,942 sewer and septic tank workers have been profiled nationwide under its flagship sanitation-worker safety programme, with 89,248…
More than 89,000 sewer and septic tank workers have been formally validated under India’s principal sanitation-worker welfare scheme since 2023, and official profiling data indicate that over 90 per cent of those identified belong to Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, or Other Backwards Class communities — underscoring sanitation work’s long-documented association with caste in India. Against…
