
A project in Delhi is retraining people who clean human excrement with their bare hands to find work as housekeepers. The training is the result of Shahdara district magistrate Kumar Mahesh’s determination to end manual scavenging. The project team found it hard to identify manual scavengers in Shahdara as many (most of whom are Dalits) are too ashamed to admit their occupation. But they finally managed to persuade 28 people to enrol for the part-time course where they learn housekeeping skills enabling them to leave the dehumanising work of scavenging behind. Read the full report here.