Taking Dignity Seriously to Protect Manual Scavengers in India: Lessons from the UN Human Rights Committee

Abstract

This article analyses the Indian caste-based occupation of sanitation work undertaken without protective equipment—manual scavenging. The current legal framework on manual scavenging in India suggests that demolishing dry latrines will abolish manual scavenging. This approach overlooks the coercive nature of the caste system and is therefore an inadequate solution for abolishing manual scavenging. Hence, this article asks ‘how can the legal system provide better legal protections to manual scavengers when the caste system that underpins the practice is deeply entrenched in Indian society?’ The article examines one possible answer—taking dignity more seriously. It demonstrates that manual scavenging is a dignitarian problem by mapping the main dignitarian harms that arise from it, such as humiliation, loss of autonomy and tensions with group dignity. Ultimately, it proposes using dignity in line with the jurisprudence of the UN Human Rights Committee to provide more comprehensive legal protections for manual scavengers.