Technological Interventions and Rehabilitation Frameworks for Eliminating Manual Scavenging

Abstract

The practice of manual scavenging is an ongoing and historically deeply rooted type of risky work, which is a manifestation of structural inequality, discrimination based on caste, and systemic failures in governance, regardless of the bans and policy declarations to eliminate it. This paper analyzes the application of technological interventions and the rehabilitation systems as complementary and interdependent measures towards the sustainable eradication of manual scavenging. It states that although mechanization, automation, redesigning infrastructure and digital technologies of governance are needed to ensure that there is no direct contact of the human waste with humans, the technology amount is not enough to resolve the social, economic, and psychological aspects of the practice. The study positions the manual scavenging in its historical and structural backdrop and presents how poor planning of sanitation and social exclusion have continued to promote unsafe work intergenerational. It is critical of emerging sanitation technologies like mechanized sewer cleaning systems, robotics, decentralized wastewater treatment, and preventive infrastructure design, as well as evaluates the drawbacks of these technologies in the lack of institutional capacity and social protection. It further highlighted the significance of combining technological innovation and holistic rehabilitation through the prioritization of the concerned societies in skill building, formal jobs, and inclusive governance. It comes to a conclusion that the eradication of manual scavenging permanently can only be achieved through a holistic model of technological modernization in tandem with social transformation that not only ensures not only better sanitation but also dignity, equity, and livelihood sustainability in formerly marginalized groups.