A Critical Insight into the Invisible Intersectionality and Vulnerability of the Wives of Manual Scavengers in India

Abstract

Despite being illegal, manual scavenging is still one of the most caste-based and dehumanizing jobs in India. The lived realities of their wives are remarkably invisible, despite the fact that male scavengers have received the majority of scholarly and policy attention. The voices and experiences of these women—who suffer from the combined oppression of caste, gender, and class—are highlighted in this paper using an integrated framework of Dalit Feminist Standpoint Theory and Intersectionality. Utilizing a qualitative meta-analysis of post-2018 literature, official data, NGO reports, and grassroots testimonies, the study shows how these women are routinely denied legal protections, policy benefits, and epistemic recognition despite their unpaid caregiving, emotional labor, and indirect involvement in sanitation work. In addition to social stigma and material deprivation, their stories show how their agency has been consistently erased from both feminist movements and state discourse. The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, in particular, is criticized in the paper for its shortcomings in addressing the gendered aspects of caste-based labor. It makes the case for a transformative justice model that centers the wives of manual scavengers as legitimate stakeholders and is based on self-representation, epistemic equity, and inclusive rehabilitation policies. The paper calls for a change from tokenistic recognition to meaningful justice that is intersectional and based on Dalit women's everyday realities by redefining their marginalization as essential to comprehending structural violence in India.