On paper, India has banned manual scavenging, the awful practice of men and women cleaning sewers and sanitary pits with their hands. In August this year, the Minister for Social Justice said no manual scavengers exist in India. And yet, on Thursday India woke up to a grim but familiar headline: 4 men died while cleaning a sewer. This time it was in the suburb of Faridabad, in Haryana, just outside Delhi. So how does this work? Manual scavenging is illegal, governments are meant to ensure sewers are cleaned using safe technology, scavengers don't even exist and yet hundreds of men and women go into stinking, gas-filled sewers risking their lives, many of whom don't make it out alive.
