Author: Aishwarya Karan
Aishwarya Karan
Author is a PhD scholar at Faculty of Law, University of Delhi undertaking research on 'A socio-legal inquiry into the interface between manual scavenging and law'. Her research areas include right to shelter, right against evictions, politics of sanitation, human rights and constitutionalism
A critical moment in the history of grassroots mobilization among Dalit women workers in the capital, a public hearing held in Delhi on Sunday brought into sharp focus the human cost of outsourcing, contractualization, and the architecture of institutionalized extortion in the city’s sanitation sector, centering the experiences of marginalized and Dalit women workers who bear the heaviest burden of these private informal arrangements. Organised by the Dalit Adivasi Shakti Adhikar Manch (DASAM) along with its women’s wing, Mahila Kaamkaji Manch (MKM), the event was titled ‘Labour Without Security, Lives Without Dignity: Confronting Structural Exploitation and Reclaiming Entitlements’. Rooted in…
In a civilized society, there is no place for a dehumanizing practice like manual scavenging borne out of a caste-based enslavement. However, the civility of Indian society may be measured by how long it took from judicial cognizance of the practice in early 1920s to when it was statutorily criminalized in 1993.