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Sanitation work off the books

How are sanitation workers employed, and which records say what caste they are?

By The Dalit ProjectUPDATED OCTOBER 11, 2026

Key takeaways

  • As on 31 March 2020 the CPSEs counted 495,751 contract, casual and daily-rated workers, 35.03% of everyone working in them, and gave no category for any of them. Exhibit 1
  • In the figures Dhenkanal Municipality gave researchers, 13 of 318 sanitation workers were permanent. Exhibit 2
  • In six Tamil Nadu districts, 469 of 864 sanitation workers surveyed said they had no contract or agreement. Exhibit 3
  • Across India, our estimate from PLFS 2023-24 unit data puts SCs at 45.28% of refuse and other elementary workers and 32.20% of cleaners and helpers, against 19.76% of all workers. Exhibit 5
  • Three government answers say the caste of sanitation workers or of people forced into manual scavenging is not kept; in the study and the survey that asked, 239 of 243 workers in Dindigul and all 48 interviewed in Dhenkanal said they were SC. Exhibit 6

How sanitation workers are employed, permanent or on contract, and which records give their caste. The government’s own records (among them the Central Public Sector Enterprises, CPSEs, and the National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem, NAMASTE), and our estimate from the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2023-24 unit data of the Scheduled Caste (SC) share in two sanitation-related occupation groups across India, are set beside one peer-reviewed study and two surveys, each from one place: Dhenkanal in Odisha, Dindigul and six districts of Tamil Nadu. Each figure carries its tier, its sample and its place; none is a national count.

contract, casual and daily-rated workers in the CPSEs as on 31 March 2020, with no category count
495,751
sanitation workers permanent in Dhenkanal Municipality, Odisha (survey, February 2023)
13 of 318
of 243 municipal sanitation workers surveyed in Dindigul, Tamil Nadu, said they were SC (peer-reviewed study, January-February 2025)
98.4%

  1. Exhibit 1

    As on 31 March 2020, the CPSEs counted 495,751 contract, casual and daily-rated workers beside 919,648 regular employees; the caste count covers only the regular employees

    People working in Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs), as on 31 March 2020: regular employees, whom the answer counts by category, and contract, casual and daily-rated workers, whom it counts in total only. All kinds of work, not sanitation alone.

    1. Regular employees, counted by category919,64865.0%
    2. Contract, casual and daily-rated workers, no category count495,75135.0%

    Note: The answer gives SCs as 17.44% of the regular employees and no category for the others. It does not say what work the contract, casual and daily-rated workers do, so sanitation work cannot be picked out.

    Source: Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 2221, answered 8 March 2021, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, figures from the Department of Public Enterprises. Analysis by The Dalit Project, as on 11 Oct 2026.

  2. Exhibit 2

    In the figures Dhenkanal Municipality gave researchers, 13 of its 318 sanitation workers were permanent and 263 were employed through a private contractor

    Sanitation workers in Dhenkanal Municipality, Odisha, by employer and type of employment, as the municipality gave them to the Centre for Policy Research and as Table 3 of its February 2023 report prints them.

    1. Permanent (municipality)134.1%
    2. Work Charged (municipality)165.1%
    3. Non-muster Roll (municipality)237.3%
    4. Contractual, through a private contractor26383.5%

    Note: The report says: “Sanitation workers employed as NMR and work-charged employees are contractual workers directly employed by Dhenkanal Municipality.” and “The PSSO pays a minimum wage of Rs 333 per day for 26 days.” (Rs 333 a day is about US$4; the report gives no year for the wage, so its own year is used.) The report prints no total; the 318 adds up its rows. It gives no caste for the workforce as a whole: the 48 workers its researchers interviewed were all SC. Arrangements with fewer than 5 workers are not shown, so the bar covers 315 of the 318.

    Source (survey): Dwivedi A, Kumar A and Dasgupta S, “Understanding Enablers and Barriers to Social Protection of Sanitation Workers”, Centre for Policy Research, February 2023, Table 3. A sample, not a national count. Analysis by The Dalit Project, as on 11 Oct 2026.

  3. Exhibit 3

    Of 864 sanitation workers surveyed in six districts of Tamil Nadu in March 2021, 469 (54.28%) said they had no contract or agreement

    Workers who handle human waste, surveyed in March 2021 in Tiruppur, Erode, Coimbatore, Salem, Tiruvannamalai and Dharmapuri districts, by the contract or agreement they said they had.

    1. No contract or agreement46954.3%
    2. Permanent33138.3%
    3. Fixed-term374.3%
    4. Daily labour192.2%
    5. Part-time70.8%
    6. Other10.1%

    Note: These are the workers’ own answers. The report counts 395 with a contract or agreement, signed or verbal, and splits them by the kind of arrangement; “permanent” is its word for regular employment. Community enumerators from two NGOs, Vizhuthugal and READ, collected the answers; the report does not say how workers were chosen.

    Source (survey): Cawood S and Prasad CS Sharada, with Vizhuthugal and READ, “Findings Report: Sanitation Workers in Tamil Nadu, India (2021)”, University of Sheffield, 2021, section 3.3. A sample, not a national count. Analysis by The Dalit Project, as on 11 Oct 2026.

  4. Exhibit 4

    Permanent workers were 4.09% in Dhenkanal, 28.43% in Dindigul and 38.31% of those surveyed in six Tamil Nadu districts

    Permanent sanitation workers, and all sanitation workers, in each place where a study or survey gives both, with what was counted and the source’s tier.

    PlaceWhat is countedTierPermanentAllPermanent share
    Dhenkanal Municipality, OdishaMunicipality’s figures, 2023Survey133184.09%
    Dindigul City Municipal Corporation, Tamil NaduCorporation’s figures, 2025Peer-reviewed study14350328.43%
    Six districts of Tamil NaduWorkers’ answers, 2021Survey33186438.31%

    Note: The three are counted in different ways, in different years, and are shown side by side, not compared. None is a count of all sanitation workers in a State or in India; no such count of permanent and contract workers was found.

    Sources: Survey: Dwivedi A, Kumar A and Dasgupta S, “Understanding Enablers and Barriers to Social Protection of Sanitation Workers”, Centre for Policy Research, February 2023, Table 3. A sample, not a national count. Peer-reviewed study: Vigneshwaran K, Krishnendhu C and Gaitonde R, “Born to clean? Caste, occupation and health: an exploration among sanitation workers in Dindigul, Tamil Nadu, India”, International Journal for Equity in Health 25:202, 26 August 2026, Methods. A sample, not a national count. Survey: Cawood S and Prasad CS Sharada, with Vizhuthugal and READ, “Findings Report: Sanitation Workers in Tamil Nadu, India (2021)”, University of Sheffield, 2021, section 3.3. A sample, not a national count. Analysis by The Dalit Project, as on 11 Oct 2026.

  5. Exhibit 5

    In PLFS 2023-24, SCs were 45.28% of refuse workers and other elementary workers and 32.20% of cleaners and helpers, against 19.76% of all workers

    SC share, %, of workers in two occupation sub-divisions of the National Classification of Occupations 2015, India, July 2023 to June 2024, by usual status (principal and subsidiary). Our estimate from survey unit data.

    1. Refuse Workers and Other Elementary Workers (NCO sub-division 96)All workers, 19.76%45.3%
    2. Cleaners and Helpers (NCO sub-division 91)32.2%

    Note: Margins are 95% intervals: refuse workers and other elementary workers ±5.27 points, from 1,053 workers in the sample; cleaners and helpers ±2.88 points, from 3,509 workers in the sample; all workers ±0.63, from 183,070. In rural and urban areas, refuse workers and other elementary workers 43.44% and 46.54%; cleaners and helpers 36.62% and 29.97%. Each sub-division is wider than sanitation work: as their names say, sub-division 96 also holds other elementary workers, and sub-division 91 holds cleaners and helpers of every kind. Social group is the household’s, as the household reported it. PLFS does not say who employs these workers on what terms by occupation, so the split between permanent and contract work cannot be read here.

    Source: The Dalit Project’s estimates from PLFS July 2023 to June 2024 unit-level data (MoSPI, first visit), with the survey’s weights; occupation sub-divisions named as in the PLFS Annual Report 2023-24, Appendix C. Our estimate, not a figure MoSPI publishes. Analysis by The Dalit Project, as on 11 Oct 2026.

  6. Exhibit 6

    Where a record or a survey gives caste, SCs were 67.91% of sewer and septic tank workers validated under NAMASTE, 36.75% of Central Government Safai Karamchari posts, 239 of 243 Dindigul sanitation workers surveyed and all 48 interviewed in Dhenkanal; three government records keep no caste

    SC share, %, of the workers or posts in each official record, study or survey that gives caste, with its tier and size. Records that keep no caste are listed.

    1. Sewer and septic tank workers validated under NAMASTE (official, 54,574 workers)67.9%
    2. Central Government Group C Safai Karamchari posts (official, 40,737 posts)36.8%
    3. Dindigul municipal sanitation workers surveyed (study, 243 workers)98.4%
    4. Dhenkanal sanitation workers interviewed (survey, 48 workers)100.0%
    5. SC and ST workers employed by private waste collection companies“No such data is maintained centrally.”
    6. The caste of sanitation workers in the reports States and UTs send“The reports sent by States/UTs does not mention the caste details.”
    7. The caste of people identified as manual scavengers“Caste based data of identified Manual Scavengers has not been maintained.”

    Note: Caste in the study and the survey is what workers said of themselves: in Dindigul the rest said Backward Class or unwilling to reveal, fewer than 5 workers each, so their counts are not shown. The NAMASTE figure is the ministry’s record of living workers; the DoPT figure counts permanent posts only. The four are different counts, shown side by side, not compared.

    Sources: NAMASTE: Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 3453, answered 17 December 2024 (18th Lok Sabha, session 3), Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. Safai Karamchari posts: Department of Personnel and Training, Annual Report 2024-25, Chapter 4, Para 4.8, data as on 1 January 2024; reservation from para 4.3. Dindigul: Peer-reviewed study: Vigneshwaran K, Krishnendhu C and Gaitonde R, “Born to clean? Caste, occupation and health: an exploration among sanitation workers in Dindigul, Tamil Nadu, India”, International Journal for Equity in Health 25:202, 26 August 2026, Table 1. A sample, not a national count. Dhenkanal: Survey: Dwivedi A, Kumar A and Dasgupta S, “Understanding Enablers and Barriers to Social Protection of Sanitation Workers”, Centre for Policy Research, February 2023. A sample, not a national count. No caste kept: Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 2904, answered 18 March 2025, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment; Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 5028, answered 1 April 2025, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment; Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 1521, answered 29 July 2025, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. Analysis by The Dalit Project, as on 11 Oct 2026.

What’s next

The next update

We will update these figures on release of a new official count of sanitation workers by employment type or caste. This is version 1.

What the data can’t tell us yet

A national figure: no official source found counts permanent and contract sanitation workers, or the caste of those on contract, and the study and surveys each cover one place.

What you can do

About this data

What this shows
How sanitation workers are employed in three places a study or survey covers, beside the government’s count of CPSE contract workers; our estimate from PLFS unit data of the SC share in two sanitation-related occupation groups across India; and every record found that gives sanitation workers’ caste.
Source
Ministry of Corporate Affairs, in the Lok Sabha; Department of Personnel and Training, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India; Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, in the Lok Sabha; Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), National Statistics Office; International Journal for Equity in Health 25:202; Centre for Policy Research; University of Sheffield, 10 documents, Representation of SCs, STs and OBCs in the operating CPSEs, as on 31 March 2020, Para 4.8, data as on 1 January 2024, Files hhv1 and perv1 (first visit), as laid out in Data_LayoutPLFS_2023-24, Table 1 and Table 3. Analysis by The Dalit Project, as on 11 Oct 2026. Every source
What it does not show
A national figure: no official source found counts permanent and contract sanitation workers, or the caste of those on contract, and the study and surveys each cover one place.
Last updated
11 Oct 2026 · Next expected update: on release of a new official count of sanitation workers by employment type or caste
Corrections
Changelog (version 1) · Corrections policy

Sources, caveats and definitions