Ranjeeth, 27, gets drunk every time he has to clean a septic tank full of human faeces by hand, a practice still widespread across India despite its ban and one that falls on those at the bottom. of the rigid social system.

The young New Delhi resident and his co-workers usually go out under the cover of night to clean public and private pits, drains and latrines under the influence of alcohol to help them somehow cope with the strong smell of excrement, despite that the practice further increases the risks of the profession.

"One of us goes into the septic tank and fills a bucket attached to a rope. Another person pulls the bucket from the surface, we get rid of the excrement and repeat the process. It takes six to eight hours to clean a pit," Ranjeet explains to Efe from his one-bedroom house located in a shantytown in the capital.

One of Ranjeet's relatives, who has been working for decades in this profession considered undignified by the highest castes of the Hindu hierarchy, told Efe that "the smell of the well is too strong, it gets into our heads."

In theory, the practice has been prohibited by law since 1993 and the Government has launched several rehabilitation programs for workers, in addition to having built more than 90 million latrines in the last five years that allow the transformation of excrement into compost and eliminate much of the risk associated with manual cleaning.

But instead of eradicating it, poor implementation of laws and the Hindu notion of impurity have forced workers to clean latrines clandestinely, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) report released last November.

"We don't have any kind of (safety items like) gloves or masks, we go down in our underwear. I must have been 16 or 17 years old when I entered a septic tank for the first time," says Ranjeet.

Like himself, his family is made up of unskilled health workers who face social stigma and discrimination on a daily basis for doing a job from which they have little chance of escaping.

"Before I used to accompany my father, but now he is sick and I do this on my own. Sometimes my little brother accompanies me," he explains.

Bizwada Wilson, the director of the NGO Safai Karamchari Andolon that works to eradicate the manual cleaning of latrines, explains to Efe that the "rigid" Hindu caste system clearly forces a part of the population "to earn a living with jobs that nobody want to do".

"Somebody tells them if they don't clean up, who's going to? Because (the workers) are illiterate they think it's okay, so there's a self-justifying component as well," says Wilson.

Ranjeet dreams of opening a small store in his neighborhood, but fears that the 'untouchable' stigma that accompanies his community means that no one will want to buy his products.

"There is no other job for me, I am a Valkimi (one of the lower social classes). What can I do? I have to support my children," laments the young man, who earns between 300 and 400 rupees (between 4 and $6) for each septic tank it cleans.

For such a low-paid job, cleaning latrines carries a long list of risks, according to the WHO report: from the risk of carbon monoxide inhalation poisoning to asthma, gastroenteritis, cholera, typhoid fever, hepatitis, polio, to the risk of infection associated with cuts and wounds.

With this list of hazards, job-associated deaths are common.

It's entertaining to me that a shipper on this day has zero idea of ​​how to package. Four glass jars next to each other… https://t.co/wB9o9pK4ri

— Patrick De Haan ⛽️📊 Sun Jun 14 15:23:56 +0000 2020

Manju, 44, lost her husband, Harkesh Jalsingh, eleven years ago while he was cleaning a latrine.

According to the autopsy, to which Efe had access, death was due "to the inhalation of toxic gases."

Manju should receive compensation from the government of 100,000 rupees (about 1,250 euros), but she has not been able to prove that her husband died while cleaning a septic tank.

"I go from one office to another, where they ask me how my husband died. Everyone knows that he fell into a septic tank and died, I don't understand what they want," she says.

According to data from the government National Commission for Safai Karamcharis (NCSK, in English), which watches over the welfare of workers in this sector, 814 people have died between 1993 and July 2019 while cleaning septic tanks.

However, Wilson's association raises the figures to 1,760 deaths in the last 25 years.

A JOB PERFORMED ALSO BY WOMEN

The work is not limited to men alone, women from the lower communities in the society also work cleaning septic tanks and latrines by hand in domestic areas and in schools.

Compared to cleaning train station toilets, drains and sewers, women's work is slightly less physically demanding but the lack of equipment and health risks are similar.

Meenu, who is in her 30s and lives in Old Delhi, dreamed of joining the Indian armed forces when she was little.

However, she explains to Efe, after being forced to marry when she was only 16 years old, she had no choice but to join her husband to earn a living cleaning bathrooms and carrying excrement on her head.

"The first day I worked it was raining, the drains were full of rainwater and debris, so I couldn't see it. I slipped and fell, and all the excrement I had cleaned up since morning fell on my head," he recalls.

About ten years have passed since that day and Meenu continues to work as a manual cleaner in 35 houses near the slum where she lives.

"The first question they ask me when looking for a job is what caste I belong to. When they hear valkimi, they immediately give me jobs cleaning latrines," she laments.

Ujwala P.