Progress report for
Global advocacy for the health, safety, and dignity of sanitation workers
Achievement at a glance
The plight of sanitation workers has been visibilized and governments have taken note, with a view to improving their working conditions.Challenges faced in implementation
The government of India has stated that manual scavenging does not exist, which is contrary to the evidence. This will entail a delicate diplomatic exercise to address the challenges without affecting the relationships with the government.The government of Lahore, Pakistan, is collaborative but does not recognize the discrimination involved in hiring exclusively Christians to perform the work of sewer cleaning. The registration of the union of sewer cleaners appears to be delayed.
Next Steps
Carlos Rafael Carrión-CrespoBeneficiaries
Sanitation workers; trade unions; recipients of sewer cleaning and other faecal sludge cleaning services.
Actions
During 2023, the ILO carried out research on the working conditions of sanitation workers in India, marking the 10-year anniversary of the law prohibiting manual scavenging, and Lahore, Pakistan. The latter was done through the Pakistani Worker Federation.In November and December 2023, the ILO held consultation workshops in New Delhi and Lahore, where representative of government, trade unions and civil society discussed the issues addressed in the research outputs. Currently, we are incorporating the results into the outputs. Both projects are ongoing.
In addition, in March 2024, the Tanzanian Ministry of Health issued National Policy Guidelines for Safeguarding the Health, Safety and Dignity of Sanitation Workers, for which the ILO provided technical assistance. The ILO will finance the initial meeting to orient, harmonize and assimilate dissemination materials to a team of national facilitators.