Article

Intersectionality of Caste, Contemporary Voice of Dalit

1–9
Gender and Occupation: © 2019 SAGE Publications
India (Pvt) Ltd
A Study of Safai Karamchari Reprints and permissions:
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Women in Maharashtra DOI: 10.1177/2455328X18822904
journals.sagepub.com/home/vod

Hemangi Kadlak1
Pradeep S. Salve2
Payal Karwade3

Abstract
The issues of women safai karamcharis are less discussed in academic sphere compared to male safai
karamcharis and given minimum importance. These women face multiple problems at the family level, at
the working places and in the society; their problems are largely unheard. In the light of this limitation, the
present study aimed to give visibility to their problems and their coping mechanisms. It is a collaborative
work of three different surveys conducted with 115 safai karamcharis women in Nagpur (60), Kalyan
(30) and Mumbai (25) cities applying qualitative and quantitative methods in Maharashtra. The results
revealed that women aged 19 years to 46 years are engaged in safai kam and majority of them are
widowed or currently married. Almost three-fourths of women resumed this occupation through
preferential treatment (PT) case and those of direct recruitment are because of their Scheduled Caste
background. Health problems and discrimination at the workplace are common and most of the time
neglected. There is a need to establish a strong bridge between workers and academicians who form
the policies and welfare programmes for safai karamcharis in order to realize their real conditions and
needs. In social sciences, theories of knowledge production have to be utilized for the upliftment or
betterment of the people irrespective of the caste and gender.

Keywords
Caste, women, gender, safai karamchari, manual scavenger, Mumbai

1
Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
2
International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
3
School of Social Work, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.

Corresponding author:
Pradeep S. Salve, International Institute for Population Sciences, Govandi Station Road, Deonar, Mumbai 400088, Maharashtra,
India.
E-mail: pradeep8889@gmail.com
2 Contemporary Voice of Dalit

Introduction
The problems of safai karamcharis1 are the least discussed and most neglected area in the academia. Some
studies have been undertaken on the occupational health hazards of male safai karamcharis through the
lens of caste, but the seriousness of the problems remains undisclosed (Salve, Bansod, & Kadlak, 2017)
and issues of women safai karamcharis remain unattended. Even in the popular media there are very few
open debates on the issue of safai karamcharis; where they have been taken up, they are more on male
safai karamcharis and less on their female counterparts. This study is an attempt to fill this gap in
academic discourse by highlighting the problems or difficulties woman safai karamcharis face, the coping
mechanisms they use to overcome these problems and by critically analysing the government policies
made for them. The primary objectives of the study were to canvas the women’s status as safai karam-
charis in urban areas. This article is a result of exploratory study undertaken by the authors by conducting
three different but separate data collection exercises through surveys and interviews in three most popu-
lated districts of Maharashtra—Mumbai, Thane and Nagpur from 2014 to 2016. The in-depth interviews
were conducted with 115 women—Nagpur (60), Kalyan (30) and Mumbai (25)—employees working as
safai karamcharis and have at least three years working experience in municipal corporation.
In Maharashtra, 59 castes are included in the Scheduled Caste (SC) list, but castes such as Mahar
(mostly Neo-Buddhists), Matang, Bhambi (Chambhar) and Bhangies together constitute almost 92
percent of the total SC population. Most of the safai karamcharis working in these cities are migrants
from various parts of India such as Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, and
so on. Some of those who migrated from other states to Maharashtra belong to the Bhangi, Mehatar,
Olgana, Rukhi, Malakana, Halalkhor, Lalbegi, Balmiki, Korar and Zadmalli castes (Darokar, 2009).
According to definition, the safai karamcharis include persons engaged as ‘sweepers’ or ‘sanitation/clean-
ing workers’ in municipalities and government offices. They may be direct employees of these bodies or
contract employees who happen to be working for these organizations. However, safai karamcharis,
per se, are not manual scavengers. The manual scavenger is a person employed for manually cleaning,
carrying, disposing of or handling human excreta (Government of India, 2013). Their major concerns are
unhygienic working and living conditions, overcrowded slum settlements, and poor access to health and
education. Their problems get more aggravated by the fact that many of these employees are affected by
substance abuse (alcohol, tobacco chewing, smoking, etc.) and indebtedness which leads to stress and
mental health issues sometimes leading to suicidal tendency. These workers are also engaged in multiple
jobs to supplement the income from sanitation work in government organizations. Majority of the
workers are illiterate or less educated. They live in the outskirts of the main city and their neighbour-
hoods reflect ghettoization. Women safai karamcharis, who form a significant proportion of total sanita-
tion workforce, face different problems in family, workplace and community often simultaneously.

Profile of Women Safai Karamcharis Studied

The majority of the women safai karamcharis surveyed have less than 10 years of schooling. This is not
surprising as the lack of education is one of the major hurdles in their progress. Due to the lack of or less
education women can not take up better jobs or be promoted to higher posts. Their educational status
affects their family; mostly their children’s upbringing and future. The patriarchal and social (caste
system) structure of Indian society limits the upward mobility of these women who come from castes
that are lowest in the social hierarchy. As Dr Ambedkar stated, ‘It is the education which is the right
weapon to cut the social slavery and it is the education which will enlighten the downtrodden masses to
come up and gain social status, economic betterment and political freedom’ (Ambedkar, 1982).
Kadlak et al. 3

The majority of women who studied in Nagpur and Mumbai municipal corporation areas were
widows and were recruited through the preferential treatment (PT)2 case (popularly known as Warsa
Hakka3) facility after the death of the male safai karamchari and key earning member of the family.
In case of the Kalyan municipal corporation, most of the women studied were currently married. In terms
of social status, almost all women safai karamchari came from the SCs, followed by some from Other
Backward Class (OBC) categories. Castes such as Rukhi, Mehtar, Valmiki, Mahar and Matangs were
more predominant. In terms of religious composition, majority of the women safai karamchari belonged
to Buddhist/Neo-Buddhist religion, followed by Hindu and Muslim. Those women who joined recently
through PT case were young and pursuing graduation or had graduated. The majority of women studied
were second or third generation in this occupation. As safai karamchari, women are formal employees
of municipal corporations, they are entitled to get at least `10,000 monthly salary, and as service years
increase, the salary rises. Despite having government job and regular salary, majority of these women
lived in slum areas which were separate settlements or ghettoes; for instance, in Mumbai major concen-
tration of safai kamgars are in the slums of Chembur, Govandi, Kurla, Matunga, Byculla, Andheri,
Malad, Borivali, Bandra and Colaba.

The Recruitment Process of Women into Sanitation Work

There are different ways to enter into this work; first, one is Warsa Hakka (PT after the death of breadwin-
ner) and second is direct recruitment. Most of the women employees are recruited on the basis of Warsa
Hakka. Under Warsa Hakka, anyone can be recruited in the place of the person who is retired, got
permanent disability or has died. Caste factor dominates strongly in the process of direct recruitment and
most of the women recruited are from SC category. Some of the women join this job on contract basis.
There is limited scope for women recruitment in the municipal corporation as safai karamchari. A major-
ity of women in Mumbai municipal corporation secured their position as the safai karamcharis because
of their male family members work in the municipal corporation. The direct recruitment of safai
karamcharis in Mumbai municipal corporation is closed since 1989 and current recruitment is mostly
based on PT, where the nominated relative by the currently working safai karamchari is replaced after
his/her retirement. Male safai karamcharis are replaced by female workers when there is no male
relative available or when male members in the family are under the official working age.
In the present study, we found that majority of women were the only breadwinners in their family
after the retirement or death of the male safai karamchari workers. Although safai karamcharis are
regular employees of municipal corporations with monthly salary, they are often caught in debt or over-
burdened by financial problems. Such precarious financial condition continues until retirement age and
after that the female member of the family is left with no other option but to work in the municipal cor-
poration to repay the loans. In many cases, we have observed that female karamcharis were forced by
family members to enter into the sanitation work to ensure survival of the family under unfavourable
financial conditions. Some of women also admitted that due to the job security and the fact that it was a
government job, they agreed to work in the sanitation field.

Gendered Safai Kam

According to the 2011 Census of India, women’s work participation rate in the workforce is 26 per cent
as against 52 per cent for men (Registrar General, 2016). Within the female workforce, there is
4 Contemporary Voice of Dalit

caste-based hierarchical division of labour. A large number of women belonging to the SC categories
find themselves at the bottom of the workforce pyramid which is often referred as ‘class four’ in govern-
ment parlance. These women are mainly engaged in farming, casual work based on daily wages, class
four work in government offices, sanitation and manual scavenging. In case of manual scavenging, we
find more women than men. This appears to have roots in the patriarchal and caste culture as woman are
considered to be impure, and therefore made responsible for clearing work whether it is inside the house
or outside the house irrespective of caste, class and geographical area. Hindu religious text, Manusmriti,
for instance, depicts all women as impure and applies the laws of touchability/untouchability (purity/
impurity) in case of women in period (Manusmriti–79). However, women are further differentiated on
the basis of caste as women from only few selected castes (for example, SCs) have been assigned (or
even forced) to do unclean work. These women engaged in sanitation work suffer because of the inter-
section of gender and caste, and their resultant lower educational, social, economic and political status
in the society. The position and work of lower-caste women have been considered an unproductive or
surplus labour in the family and society.
We found that most of the women entered the sanitation work after their marriage as their parents
dissuaded them from doing this before marriage. In the present study, we have observed that the age
of marriage is less than 18 years. Marriages at early age result in motherhood at young age and
increased household responsibilities and in some cases widowhood at very young age (Kardak, 2015;
Shanthi, 2010). During data collection, most women told us that after few months of their marriage, they
entered into this work area. Some others joined this job after the birth of their first or second child, and
the rest after their children had grown up. A narration by one respondent (39-year-old sweeper from
Kalyan) is as follows,

After two months of my marriage, I joined this work; before marriage I was not into it. I married at the age of
16 years. Nobody told me to do this work, I myself started this when I was pregnant with my elder daughter.
I thought gharwala (husband) should not have (financial) problem and should not feel that he is feeding me and
I am not doing anything and just sitting idle at home.

‘Muze accha nahi lagata tha (I was not feeling good), so I started the work,’ she added.
The women we studied were mostly involved in sweeping roads, markets and public places with long
handle brooms and collecting the swept waste into trolleys to deposit in the community dustbins. Their
nature of work though differed as per city. In Mumbai, majority of the women involved in collecting the
swept waste did it with the help of two pieces of cardboard, plastic, ply or metal and disposed it in the
nearby community dustbin. In Kalyan and Nagpur, women were mainly engaged in sweeping. In Nagpur,
87 per cent of the respondents collected the waste and sometimes assisted male workers. These women’s
workday begins in the early morning and continues until 2 pm and they work continuously without any
scheduled break. Whenever they need rest they sit for some time along the roadside. Everybody has to
compulsorily wear uniform during working hours or otherwise they are penalized. At the work place,
where they report and sign on and off, they do not have a changing room. Women in Nagpur municipal
corporation reported that their work places do not have even basic amenities such as toilet, drinking
water, sitting arrangement and first-aid box. When we enquired about the protective measures provided,
women in Nagpur reported that they have not been provided with any protective gears for a long time.
Similar situation is observed at Kalyan, whereas the situation of women working in Mumbai was found
to be better. Women in Mumbai reported that they are provided with the basic facilities and protective
measures at the reporting places.
Almost all women’s family members and relatives were associated with sanitation work which
increased the acceptability of sanitation workers among family members and relatives. Since childhood,
Kadlak et al. 5

many of these women were familiar with this job and therefore found it easier to do it. However, they did
admit that their job is dirty and therefore easy to get in both private and government sector. They also
told us that this job is male-dominated and women have been given a secondary position and almost no
say in taking decisions. The following statement by a 20-year-old woman safai karamchari from Mumbai
gives us the insight into the gender dimension of recruitment,

My father died with the paralysis and permanent disability of lower back six years after he met with a road
accident during working hours. He worked for 20 years in the municipal corporation as street sweeper. In that
situation, my mother (35 years age) continued his work and being an elder in the family, I took over the charge
of family. She was a diabetes patient; after working for 5 years, she was hit badly by a vehicle causing a fracture
of her right leg. She could not be cured and passed away. Now, since the past 3 years, I am working in her place
as third generation sweeper. I am planning to get married in the next few years. That time my brother will reach
the age of eligibility to claim this job through PT case. I want to hand over this job to him because he is alone
and will have to look after the family. After my marriage, my husband will take care of me, so for me there is no
need to have this job.

Male Intervention
Caste has not only divided people on the basis of their birth but has also separated and neglected the
women from the rest of the society. The institution of marriage has complicated the woman’s position in
her own family. This has made her and her family members believe that she is paraya dhan (property that
belongs to others) and one day she will go out of the house. Even after marriage, her in-laws house never
becomes her own house and in this process she is left with a homeless feeling. Ironically, her position at
the workplace is endangered by women’s exploitation or discrimination which is not a new phenomenon
here. Even in the organized sector, women face humiliations; it is mostly verbal, making them to work
for extra hours or making them to work where they are not comfortable.
In general, the culture that has prevailed in Indian society is in line of not hearing women’s voices;
the same orientation operates at the workplace. Most of the time their requests are denied, unheard or
given less importance. These women seek intervention by male members of their family such as husband,
son or any male member of the family. Married women mostly seek help from their husbands and those
who are widows seek help from their sons or other close relatives. Here also, they seek help from the
male members to rescue themselves in critical situations. As India has a predominantly male-dominated
society, most of the time it creates complicated situations for women. The latter have the mentality to be
less assertive and mostly in critical situations feel helpless, less empowered and regard it safer to take
help from male members. The work nature makes the employee isolated from rest of the society. Safai
karamchari women are discriminated against due to the facts that they are poor, they are Dalits and they
are women. They are not only discriminated against by society at large but also within their own com-
munities, where men are dominant. In Mumbai and Nagpur, we found women facing teasing problems
from their male counterparts and in Kalyan exploitation by Mukadam (supervisor).
Here we would like to mention an incidence of a hearing-impaired safai karamchari woman.
A Mukadam gave her work to broom the road in a particular area. She would do the work and would sit
for some time; whenever he saw her sitting, he would force her to do more work. She would not get any
time for rest or for lunch; the trouble increased and she would daily cry and became mentally disturbed
by his behaviour. That disturbance was reflected in her behaviour in the house. One day her son forced
her to reveal her problem, she narrated everything to her younger son. He went to the Mukadam, beat
him up and threaten him. Since then, the Mukadam shifted her to another area and changed her work.
6 Contemporary Voice of Dalit

There is a need to change the mindset of women on how they look at themselves, and there is a need to
change the approach of the male members on how they see the women.

A Sketch of Their Life Reality

Most of the women come from joint families where they have to share household responsibilities. Those
who come from nuclear families have to think twice before leaving the house as to who will take care of
their children. Those women who live in joint families get help from other family members, mostly from
women in the family; those who live in nuclear families get the help from the girl child in the family.
Most of the working women’s elder daughters, or if one does not have an elder daughter then any other
daughter, work as helping hands in doing the household chores. Due to more involvement in household
work, these young girls lose interest in their studies and slowly become dropouts from the school.
The childhood of the safai karamcharis’ children is different from that of the other children in the
society. This is due to less or no education, nature of occupation, economic deprivation and the culture
the children are exposed to, which affect their personality as a whole. The primary factor that affects the
children most is their caste, the stigmatized work of their parents, economic condition of the family and
the lack of quality education facilities. At the second level, inadequate health care facilities and nutrition,
unhygienic sanitation conditions and the third level, the child’s socio-political and cultural environment
are important factors.
Although, these women are the breadwinners of their families, they do not enjoy decision-making
powers. Almost all their movements and important decisions such as their sons and daughters’ marriages
are taken by the in-laws or male members of the family, no matter whether they live in nuclear families
or joint families. As the woman comes from low socio-economic background, because of financial con-
straints she goes out to supplement the family income; but even as her job is to earn money, how to spend
it and where to spend it is not in her hands. At the workplace, she has to face mental and sexual harass-
ment, abusive words and taunt from her male supervisors and male colleagues. Often, the supervisor
does favouritism among female employees which create excessive burden on some other women. Most
of the times, the supervisors give them work instructions by shouting and scolding them if some problem
occurs while doing the work or if the work is not completed properly. Society at large looks at her as a
low-caste woman, who does dirty work. Hence nobody wants to come near to her, or treat her equally.
In general, if she faces challenges at home she keeps quiet, and does not reply. At the work place,
if she faces any problem she keeps quiet, or sometimes discusses the issue with her female colleagues;
if the problem is major sometimes she retorts back or argues. We observed that while they work with
other women, they do not mingle with other women. Only during work time they meet, do their respective
tasks and then they go back to their own homes. But men, other than during their work time, go out with
their friends, party together and meet in social gathering, like going for picnics, etc. One of the biggest
problems that the women face is their husbands’ alcoholism and sometimes they have to lose their
husbands. There is a close link with safai kam and alcoholism which has worst implications on safai
karamcharis health and family, mostly on wives and children. Here is a case which reveals this problem
and shows how the woman survived from her husband’s addiction and is now leading her life without
her husband. Says the 40-year-old widow safai karamchari woman from Mumbai:

Since past 5 years, I am working as safai kamgar. I was 40-years old when my husband (age 47) died due to
alcohol addiction. I joined as sweeper one year after his death. I am managing my household now. I have two
children and both are studying in the secondary school. I took over this job after my husband’s death in 2005.
When I married him, he would never touch alcohol, but over the period of years he became addicted to alcohol
Kadlak et al. 7

after being engaged in this waste collection work. Many times when he used to come home heavily drunk,
I opposed him; and he used to finish it up by beating me. Due to financial scarcity, we admitted him in the
government hospital, but the doctor could not save him because of lungs failure. Now I am doing work and
managing the household.

Health Assailability
Safai karamchari women who are engaged in sweeping, collection of swept waste and deposition of it in
the community dustbins are vulnerable to development of various severe health problem such as chronic
cough, headaches, respiratory infections, skin disease, anemia, diarrhea, musculoskeletal disorders and
mental disorders during the working years. At the same time, they suffer from the reproductive health
problems and gynaecological issues. The prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders are found to be high
among women probably because of the dual burden of heavy physical activities when working in
the fields and doing household chores daily. About 88 per cent of the respondents at Nagpur municipal
corporation, followed by 72 per cent at Mumbai, suffered from joints pain or musculoskeletal pain due
to the heavy physical activities during work. Second, a high percentage of women reported mental
distress due to the work burden and working schedule. The working schedule of women karamcharis are
different from that of other working women in society. Safai karamchari women have to get up early in
the morning around 3:00 am to 4:00 am, depending upon the distance from their house to the workplace.
Their work begins at 6:30 am in the morning and before leaving for work they have to prepare food for
their family. Due to this working schedule, they do not get adequate sleep and are unable to restore their
physical capacity of work. This results in daily health issues such as headache, acidity, nausea, fluctua-
tions in blood pressure, hypertension and menstrual problems.
The studies not only explored the health risks among the women but also enquired into the treatment-
seeking behaviour for reported morbidities. It has been observed that safai karamchari women do not
seek health treatment for their illness in the primary phase, unless it is intolerable. At the onset of any
morbidity, they prefer home remedies as curative measures; when it is unmanageable, only then do they
visit the pharmacist medical facility of the nearby community. Of those who seek treatment, the majority
visit the public health facility nearby. The lack of literacy, unawareness and negligence towards self
among safai karamchari women related to health seeking resulted in their progressive deterioration of
health. As government employees, safai karamcharis are entitled to medical claims during illness, but
the ground observations suggest that women were not provided with medical insurance. Whatever
expenditure occurs during the treatment, women have to pay from their savings which result in financial
burden and which is the out-of-pocket expenditure. Their major sources of out-of-pocket expenditure on
treatment-seeking are family savings, borrowing from friends/relatives and mortgage of household
assets. The situation is similar in Nagpur and Kalyan municipal corporations. But at the Mumbai munici-
pal corporation, the women safai karamcharis reported that they were recently provided with medical
insurance of around `250,000. karamchari, they are demanding extension of medical insurance for their
family members too, with the increasing of insurance coverage to around `500,000.

Safai Karamchari Women and Trade Unions

When we interviewed the women and men safai karamcharis, they both disclosed that mainly men rule
the trade unions. None of the women were found in high positions at the unions. Also, men never took
8 Contemporary Voice of Dalit

up issues which were related to women. For instance, there are more than 50 big and small unions in the
municipal corporation of Mumbai, but women’s participation in these unions are invisible. The women
safai karamcharis said that the union representatives come to them asking for donations and for collect-
ing the money for welfare of workers, but none of the unions are useful to them. The union is there to
look after the issues raised by the workers; but due to the high level of illiteracy, lack of support from
colleagues, fear of losing jobs, harassment, delay in processing and demands of bribe from higher
position staff, they do not go against the municipal corporation. Since the trade unions are dominated by
men, and as the women have their own problems and concerns to be discussed, they now feel they want
their separate union where they will feel comfortable to take up their issues and challenges.

Condition of Contract Safai Karamchari Women

Although we have not thoroughly discussed the condition of contract workers in the present article, but
the situation of temporary safai karamchari women are worse than that of the regular women workers.
Contract safai karamchari women hardly get `150 to `200 as daily wages. There are no protective meas-
ures (hand gloves, facial masks and other facilities, etc.) made available to them. They probably work on
alternative days in the areas which are not covered by the regular workers. There are critical discussions
amongst workers as well as intellectuals against the privatization of safai kam, which in turn makes them
insecure. Municipal corporations address contract safai karamcharis as liabilities and deny them
workers’ rights.

Conclusion
We can say that safai karamchari women are directed by two kinds of authorities—one is the authority
of the family, where, being a woman she is forced to do any kind of dirty work. Second is social authority
such as caste and socio-cultural norms which dictate women to perform certain types of work without
any question. It is found that when women take over their husbands’ jobs on the ground of PT case, they
manage their finances without any pressure and use the money according to the necessity and needs of
the family members, mostly children. They spend most of the money to support marriages in the family,
perform rituals, customs, functions, pujas in the name of god, on health and education of the children,
mostly male children. Though the safai karamchari women are vulnerable, yet there are no target-
oriented policies for them. There is a need to incorporate women-centric approach to make the women
more comfortable at the workplace. There is also a need to work to ensure changes in society’s approach
towards safai karamchari women.
It is important to establish a strong bridge between workers and academicians who form the policies
and welfare programmes for these employees so as to realize the workers’ real conditions and needs.
As researchers here, we realized the importance of our intervention in revealing the real concerns of the
workers. In social sciences, theories of knowledge production have to be utilized for the upliftment or
betterment of the people. Just as the mobile phone, through technological innovation, has intervened in
the daily lives of the people, so also the production of social science knowledge has to intervene in the
daily lives of the people to reduce social inequality in the society. Women, family and community are
closely interlinked, and it is the progress of women that can make the family, community and, on a larger
scale, the nation, progress. Therefore, to make the nation strong, we need to recognize women as strong
human beings. As Dr Ambedkar stated, ‘I measure the progress of the community by the degree of
progress which women have achieved.’
Kadlak et al. 9

Acknowledgement
Authors are thankful to all those women safai karamcharis who agreed to give interviews and were keen to give
voice to their struggle

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of
this article.

Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Notes
1. Safai karamchari is a Hindi term for sanitation (safai) worker (karamchari) in India. Karamcharis indicate its
plural form.
2. Preferential treatment: Under this system, a safai karamchari can nominate his wife, son/brother, unmarried or
widowed daughter/sister, or any other dependent to the post of worker after his retirement, death or permanent
disability.
3. Phrase for hereditary right in Hindi and Marathi.

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