The Dalit Adivasi Shakti Adhikar Manch (DASAM) has expressed solidarity with sanitation workers across Punjab, Jaipur, Bihar, Chennai, Indore, and other parts of the country who have been compelled to organise protests and strikes demanding regularisation of employment, fair wages, social security, safe working conditions, and dignity at work. The organisation has condemned the continued neglect of these long-pending demands by municipal authorities and state governments, reflecting what it describes as an institutional disregard for one of the most essential workforces.
Sanitation workers have repeatedly demonstrated commitment in ensuring public health, environmental sanitation, and urban functioning despite working under hazardous, insecure, and exploitative conditions. Yet, thousands continue to be employed through contractual arrangements, receive inadequate wages, are denied statutory employment benefits, and remain excluded from social security protections, constituting a denial of labour rights and constitutional guarantees.
DASAM has expressed concern over the systemic failure to recognise sanitation work as a dignified public service deserving of secure employment, adequate wages, occupational safety, and social protection. The majority of sanitation workers in the country come from historically oppressed Scheduled Caste communities, particularly those communities that have been forced into caste-based occupations through generations of discrimination and exclusion. The persistence of contractualisation and precarious employment of sanitation workers perpetuates structural caste inequality while denying workers equal opportunities, economic security, and human dignity. Such practices, the organisation stated, are incompatible with the constitutional vision of equality, social justice, and the abolition of caste-based discrimination.
Articles 14, 15, 16, 17, 21, 23, and 42 of the Constitution collectively guarantee equality before the law, prohibit discrimination, abolish untouchability, protect the dignity of life, prohibit exploitation, and require the State to secure just and humane conditions of work. The Directive Principles of State Policy further obligate governments to ensure a living wage, humane working conditions, and social security for all workers. However, dependence on insecure contractual labour for sanitation work undermines these constitutional guarantees.
DASAM also reiterated that the engagement of sanitation workers in hazardous occupations without adequate protective equipment, health insurance, regular medical checkups, and occupational safety mechanisms violates the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020, and the country's obligations under international labour standards concerning dignified work, occupational safety, and equality.
The repeated reliance on contractual employment for municipal functions has enabled widespread denial of provident fund, pension benefits, paid leave, healthcare, maternity benefits, compensation, and other statutory entitlements guaranteed under labour laws. Workers performing essential public functions cannot be treated as disposable labour while cities continue to depend on their services every single day.
DASAM believes that sanitation workers deserve not merely appreciation during public health emergencies but recognition through secure employment, fair wages, social security, and dignified working conditions. The administration cannot continue to outsource responsibility while benefiting from the labour of workers whose contribution remains indispensable to society.
The organisation has put forward a comprehensive set of demands:
Immediate regularisation of all sanitation workers engaged with an end to exploitative contractual employment.
Revision of wages to ensure a living wage in line with inflation, equal pay for equal work, timely salary payments, and implementation of all pending wage revisions.
Universal social security coverage, including provident fund, pension, Employees' State Insurance, health insurance, maternity benefits, accident compensation, paid leave, and retirement benefits for all sanitation workers irrespective of employment status.
Provision of adequate protective equipment, mechanisation of hazardous sanitation work wherever possible, regular health screenings, occupational safety training, and strict enforcement of workplace safety standards.
Complete eradication of all forms of manual scavenging and hazardous manual sewer and septic tank cleaning through mechanisation, strict legal enforcement, rehabilitation, and accountability for public authorities that violate statutory prohibitions.
Strict implementation of labour laws and constitutional safeguards protecting sanitation workers from discrimination, exploitation, caste-based harassment, unsafe working conditions, and arbitrary termination of service.
Establishment of grievance redressal mechanisms, regular consultations with workers' unions and representative organisations, and participation of sanitation workers in decisions affecting their employment and welfare.
A national policy for sanitation workers that ensures employment security, healthcare, housing, education for workers' children, and pathways for social and economic mobility beyond caste-based occupations.
DASAM further recommended that both the Union and State Governments establish independent monitoring committees comprising representatives of sanitation workers' unions, Dalit rights organisations, labour experts, public health professionals, and human rights institutions to periodically review compliance with labour standards, occupational safety norms, and social security obligations. Municipal corporations must also allocate budgetary resources for worker welfare rather than relying on precarious outsourcing models that compromise both workers' rights and public service delivery.
The continued neglect of sanitation workers' demands sends a troubling message that those who perform the most essential and hazardous work remain the least valued within our public institutions. This institutional indifference reinforces caste hierarchies, entrenches economic inequality, and undermines the constitutional promise of dignity for all citizens.
DASAM reiterated that sanitation workers are not seeking charity; they are asserting their constitutional, legal, and human rights. Their struggle is fundamentally a struggle for dignity, equality, and social justice. The organisation has pledged to stand with sanitation workers across the country and called upon all governments to engage in dialogue, immediately address their long-pending demands, and ensure that no worker is forced to choose between livelihood and dignity. DASAM will continue to support the struggles of sanitation workers and advocate for structural reforms that eliminate caste-based occupational discrimination, guarantee decent work, and uphold the constitutional values of justice, equality, fraternity, and human dignity.