Manual Scavenging

Called HomoSEP, this robot has been developed by researchers at IIT-Madras and Solinas Integrity, an IIT-M incubated startup, in close coordination with the Safai Karamchari Andolan (SKA), a non-profit dedicated to the elimination of manual scavenging in India.

Student Shiv Kampani from Mumbai has innovated a robotic brush to clean out human waste from drains, pipes and sewers in a bid to bring manual scavenging to an end.

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"If I succeed, it will be dedicated to him. No one deserves to die the way my father did, and I want to make sure people know about it."

“I want every woman to be independent through dignified jobs. That is how we will build a better society, free of untouchability.”

Courage and conviction, this gritty couple has oodles of them. #Respect

“Even if only one person in the country is a manual scavenger or bonded labourer, it is a national shame,” says Ashif Shaikh, founder of Jan Sahas which is ending discrimination and unjust practices across India

“When safai karamcharis actually showed us how manual scavengers carve the hardened sludge in the septic tank and hammer it with their hands, we realised how difficult the environment is for them. That's why this matters."

Reports say one person has died every five days cleaning sewers and septic tanks across the country. A black mark that must be erased!

Despite passing laws like the Employment of Manual Scavenging and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act in 1993 (which was revised two decades later in 2013), manual scavenging continues to dig its claws into the social ecosystem of different parts of India.