Health, Work, and State Response Toward Person Engaged in Sanitation Work: Some Issues and Challenges

Abstract

This paper attempts to discuss and analyze the social issues faced by sanitation workers. It also tries to address the issues and concerns of sanitation workers. It begins with the rationale of selecting the specific topic on a particular set of population. Then, it describes the issues faced by sanitation workers of selected occupational aspect. This study is an attempt to carry out research on dynamics linked with the status of a community which is considered and described as the most socially backward in Indian society. People involved in sanitary work mainly come from lowest strata of the caste system. They suffer different kinds of occupational health hazards due to low hygiene level in their work. They find very limited accessibility to health service system in the wake of various socioeconomic and cultural barriers. The sanitation workers belong to scheduled castes (constitutional category) and are historically oppressed and a resource-deprived group of Hindu society in terms of caste discrimination and stigma of impurity. On account of lowest socioeconomic status, the sanitation workers face various issues in their work and restricted accessibility to available other services such as health, education, and other social welfare schemes. The paper is based on an exploratory study conducted in Bhubaneswar to understand the issues of sanitation workers.