Data / Work / Sanitation work off the books

Methods and sources

Sanitation work off the books

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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.

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.

Sources

  • Ministry of Corporate Affairs, in the Lok Sabha, Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 2221: Recruitments in PSUs, Representation of SCs, STs and OBCs in the operating CPSEs, as on 31 March 2020, dated 8 Mar 2021. Primary source.
  • Department of Personnel and Training, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India, Department of Personnel and Training, Annual Report 2024-25, Chapter 4, Reservation in the Central Government Services, Para 4.8, data as on 1 January 2024. Primary source.
  • Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, in the Lok Sabha, Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 3453: Welfare and Profiling of Sewer and Septic Tank Workers, dated 17 Dec 2024. Primary source.
  • Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, in the Lok Sabha, Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 2904: Tribal Sanitation Workers, dated 18 Mar 2025. Primary source.
  • Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, in the Lok Sabha, Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 5028: Sanitation Workers, dated 1 Apr 2025. Primary source.
  • Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, in the Lok Sabha, Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 1521: Persistence of Manual Scavenging, dated 29 Jul 2025. Primary source.
  • Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), National Statistics Office, Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) July 2023 to June 2024, unit-level data (first visit), as estimated by The Dalit Project, Files hhv1 and perv1 (first visit), as laid out in Data_LayoutPLFS_2023-24. Primary source.
  • International Journal for Equity in Health 25:202, Vigneshwaran K, Krishnendhu C and Gaitonde R, “Born to clean? Caste, occupation and health: an exploration among sanitation workers in Dindigul, Tamil Nadu, India”, Table 1, dated 26 Aug 2026. Peer-reviewed study: a sample, not a national count.
  • Centre for Policy Research, Dwivedi A, Kumar A and Dasgupta S, “Understanding Enablers and Barriers to Social Protection of Sanitation Workers”, Table 3. Survey by researchers or an NGO: a sample, not a national count.
  • University of Sheffield, Cawood S and Prasad CS Sharada, with Vizhuthugal and READ, “Findings Report: Sanitation Workers in Tamil Nadu, India (2021)”. Survey by researchers or an NGO: a sample, not a national count.

Analysis by The Dalit Project, as on 11 Oct 2026.

Read these with the numbers

  • The study and the two surveys each cover one place. None is a national count, and they are not compared with one another or with the official figures.
  • The Tamil Nadu survey’s table of the communities workers named does not add up (one row prints 156 respondents as 1.9%), so it is not used.
  • The PLFS figures are survey estimates with sampling error; the margins given are 95% intervals. The two occupation sub-divisions are wider than sanitation work, and PLFS publishes no table of occupation by social group, so these are our estimates, not MoSPI figures.
  • No official count gives how many sanitation workers in India are permanent and how many are on contract, or the caste of those on contract.
  • The CPSE figures are as on 31 March 2020, the latest found in a Lok Sabha answer; the Department of Public Enterprises’ own survey could not be opened.
  • The Dindigul study chose workers at random within its permanent and temporary groups. The Dhenkanal researchers found workers by snowball sampling, starting from three the municipality’s officials named, and the Tamil Nadu report does not say how workers were chosen.

Key terms

CPSE
Central Public Sector Enterprise: a company in which the Union Government holds more than half the shares.
Safai Karamchari
Sanitation worker. DoPT counts Group C Safai Karamchari posts separately in the Central Government.
NAMASTE
The National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem, under which the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment profiles and validates sewer and septic tank workers.
Work-charged and non-muster roll
Workers a municipality employs directly but not in permanent posts; the Dhenkanal report calls them “contractual workers directly employed by Dhenkanal Municipality”.
NCO sub-division
A two-digit group of the National Classification of Occupations 2015, which PLFS uses to code each worker’s occupation.
Peer-reviewed study
A study published in a journal after review by other researchers. Its figures cover its own sample.
Survey
A survey by researchers or an NGO, with a stated method and sample. Its figures cover its own sample.

Changelog and corrections

Version 1: First version: CPSE regular and contract workers as on 31 March 2020, DoPT’s Safai Karamchari posts, NAMASTE, the answers that say no caste is kept, and our estimate from PLFS 2023-24 unit data of the SC share in NCO sub-divisions 91 and 96, beside one peer-reviewed study (Dindigul) and two surveys (Dhenkanal; six districts of Tamil Nadu).

How corrections work. Every change is listed here.

Cite this

The Dalit Project, “Sanitation work off the books”, version 1, data.dalitproject.org/sanitation-off-the-books/, as on 11 Oct 2026.