Sanitation worker safety and livelihoods in India: A blueprint for action

The Sanitation Project
In 2017, Dalberg Advisors carried out a study of sanitation workers across India – the first of its kind – to understand the issue both from a worker perspective as well as a supply-side or institutional perspective

The Sanitation Workers Project is a structured, first-of-its-kind 5-month long study of sanitation workers across India carried out by Dalberg Advisors in 2017, with the support of The Gates Foundation.

The state of sanitation workers remains a blind spot, as workers face significant challenges on multiple fronts – financial, health and social. To develop a blueprint with solutions for this murky problem, we interacted with all the stakeholders – workers across the sanitation value chain, government officials, contractors, NGOs and experts.

Unsafe sanitation work continues to persist in multiple forms in India in spite of it being banned in 1993 and several initiatives by CSOs.

Workers face significant challenges on multiple fronts - financial, health and social:
1. Hazardous work environment leading to acute mental and physical health issues; rampant drug abuse alcoholism
2. Poor pay and exploitation by sanitation contractors
3. Social stigma and lack of access to public resources

This publication is divided into four phases:
Phase 1: Understanding the problem
Phase 2: Best practices
Phase 3: Solutioning
Phase 4: City Blueprint - Trichy

Bibliographic information

Dalberg Advisors (2017). Sanitation worker safety and livelihoods in India: A blueprint for action. Dalberg Advisors, New Delhi, India

Filter tags

East Asia & Pacific English Import to Sanitation Workers Platform Politicians and local decision makers Practitioners Urban informal settlements (slums)

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