Legislating Dignity: Evaluating India’s Legal Response to Manual Scavenging

The paper identifies the issue of manual scavenging, which is deep rooted in India, with a multidisciplinary approach based on historical, legal, social, and judicial aspects. It explores the caste origins of the practice, the suffering of manual scavengers and discrimination, and the different legislative and judicial measures in intervening over the years. Although the rights and dignity of manual scavengers have many times been secured by the Constitution of India and landmark rulings of the Supreme Court, there are still critical voids in enforcement, rehabilitation, and acceptance by the society. The analysis shows that although legal prohibition and rehabilitation programs, the tradition of scavenging manually still exists because of bad implementation, law creation loopholes, and social conditioning that maintains the Dalits in their humiliating jobs.