The Worst Job in the World
Around five million people in India work as “manual scavengers”, who clean and unblock the country’s municipal sewage lines and private septic tanks in return for a pitiful 386 Indian rupees – around £4.10.
The profession is considered to be the most dangerous in India, with government figures released in July conceding that 347 people have died in the last five years.
Activists say the true toll is far greater with more than 2,000 people dying annually, while thousands suffer debilitating injuries, including broken limbs.
The stench is overwhelming as two slight figures wrestle the lid away from the concrete drain, but the pair hardly flinch. Instead Mukesh Niyak lowers Manu Kumar into an unlit, ten-foot deep pit containing filthy, untreated sewage.
The contents reach the 20-year-old’s shoulders. Intermittently, fist-sized cockroaches crawl over his face as the insects scuttle to the surface.
“I try to be friendly with the animals – but it doesn’t always work,” says Mr Kumar nervously.
“It must be the worst job in the world,” says Mr Kumar, emerging from the pit covered in brown sludge. “It’s so dangerous, but there are no other opportunities for us in India.”
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Sewer cleaning was made illegal in India in 1993, yet the highly dangerous practice remains widespread. It is undertaken by the Dalits, the lowest caste in India sometimes known as “untouchables.” Mukes Niyak 27 cleans out a septic tank, Bokaro Steel City, Jharkhand.
Jiten Ram, whose own father died while working in the sewers, is lifted out of a septic tank by a fellow worker .
Kailash, 30, works up to his neck cleaning out a sewer in Wazirabad. His hand has developed white patches from long-term exposure to polluted water.
In Ranchi’s squalid Jorar basti – an illegal, informal, squatter settlement – the community lives in mud-stained, makeshift tents, surrounded by a large landfill and stalked by rabid dogs.
In Ranchi’s squalid Jorar basti – an illegal, informal, squatter settlement – the community lives in mud-stained, makeshift tents, surrounded by a large landfill and stalked by rabid dogs.
Rikki Devi, 35, photgraphed with her six-year-old daughter, no longer goes into the sewers and has managed to start a small business instead.
Sonu Atto, a 15-year-old scavenger, from Kishore Ganj, Balmiki Basti, Ranchi.
Sumitri Devi Ram and two of her grandchildren, Rakhi and Jannat. Her husband, Bhagwan, felt a searing pain in his upper arm while cleaning a septic tank. Doctors told them it was a spider bite – probably from a black widow – but his family couldn’t afford the anti-venom. Bhagwan collapsed and died just steps away from their front door.
Once a manual scavenger enters the chamber, they sometimes realise too late that there is not enough oxygen and fall unconscious.
Amar Ram, 43, at work in Bokaro Steel City, Jharkhand
Muna Kumar admits the work is dangerous, but says there are no other opportunities for him.
Sewer workers have a makeshift shower after cleaning out a septic tank in Railway Colony, Bokaro Steel City.
‘India has the technology to go to the moon, but we can’t clean our own sewage’
Sewer workers clean out a septic tank in Railway Colony, Bokaro Steel City.
Akash Kumar, 23, and Krishna Dom, 35, clean out a septic tank under the watchful eye of their employers.
Pramod Ram, a 40-year-old manual scavenger who lives In Ranchi’s squalid Jorar basti.
Manual scavenger Sumit, 25, holds his one-year-old daughter Vidhya at their home in Kishore Ganj, Balmiki Basti, Ranchi.