INDIAN GEOGRAPHY

Detailed explanation-1: -Most of the Untouchables were involved in sanitary works as cleaning the streets, carrying night soil, carrying dead animals, curing the hides etc. Though the caste system with its various features has changed, sanitary works undertaken by the Untouchables still continue.

Detailed explanation-2: -Forced by the circumstance of their birth and poverty, Dalits in India continue to work as sanitation workers: manual scavengers, cleaners of drains, garbage collectors, and sweepers of roads.

Detailed explanation-3: -2A particular fact in India is the employment of workers to clean latrines and septic tanks manually. This practice is known as manual scavenging, and its practitioners, known as manual scavengers, who predominantly belong to the most vulnerable caste in society, the Dalits (SINGH 2014; MASUKI 2022).

Detailed explanation-4: -According to government data, 97% of manual scavengers are Dalits-about 42, 594 manual scavengers belong to SCs, 421 belong to STs and 431 belong to OBCs.

Detailed explanation-5: -Dalits are divided into leather workers, street sweepers, cobblers, agricultural workers, and manual “scavengers”. The latter group, considered the lowest of the low and officially estimated at one million, traditionally are responsible for digging village graves, disposing of dead animals, and cleaning human excreta.