As per the 2011 Socio Economic and Caste Census there are ‘1.8 lakh Dalit households manually cleaning the 7.9 lakh public and private dry latrines (not the modern flush one) across India; 98 per cent of scavengers are meagrely paid women and girls’. An Indian Express article described how female manual scavengers in Meerut remove human excreta with bare hands, without gloves, aprons or safety equipment ever being used. The same practice is followed in many other parts of the country.
