Scavenging engineers.

"It was often mentioned how Indian FLFPR (female labor force participation rate) was lower than many Arab economies (whose rates are lower due to cultural reasons)," wrote Surjit S Bhalla. Not any more. "Using the usual status definition of labor force (employed for at least 30 days) for the age group 15-64.., LFPR for women, at 39.2%, is now within 5 percentage points of the 44% level observed in 2004-05," and "For the age group 25-64 and not one contaminated by school and college enrollments, FLFPR in 2022-23 is observed to be 45.6%." Highly encouraging but, "In 2022, youth unemployment rate in India was at 23.22%, higher than its neighbors Pakistan (11.3%), Bangladesh (12.9%) and Bhutan (14.4%), showed World Bank data," wrote Taniya Roy. China was at 13.2%, Indonesia at 13%, Malaysia 11.7% and Vietnam at 7.4%. "The youth unemployment rate refers to those in the workforce who are aged 15 to 24 years and without a job, but actively seeking one." Lack of employment means that "Manual scavenging is banned in India but the practice is still commonplace, with people forced into it because of rigid caste rules and the lack of other livelihood options," and "In July, the government said that 339 people had died in the past five years while cleaning sewers and septic tanks." BBC. Actually, to break the shackles of caste, India resolutely follows a system of affirmative action with at least 15% of government jobs and seats in higher educational institutions reserved for people designated as Scheduled Caste (SC). Legal Service. In 2021-22, total (girls+ boys) enrollment in primary education stood at 103.4%, upper primary was at 94.7% and secondary at 79.6%. pib.gov.in. In 2020-21, there was a "Significant increase of 28% in enrollment of SC students (total of 5.9 million) and 38% in enrollment of Female SC students" in higher education. pib.gov.in. Free food grains are being provided to over 800 million people till December 2023 and the scheme will probably be extended because of the general election in April-May 2024. NDTV. Given the combination of 100% enrollment in primary education, reservation in higher education and government jobs and provision of free food grains why would people resort to manual scavenging? Possibly because food alone does not fulfill all of their needs and there aren't enough jobs to pay for those needs. Why do they die? Because India has not learnt to build proper sewers. In 2019, "A gigantic sludgy mass the size of a double-decker bus has been removed - by hand - from the sewers of East London, ending a messy 3-week operation." ABC. "The only way to remove the fatberg was, first, to loosen it up bit by bit by blasting it with high-powered jets, then remove the debris by hand before sucking the substance out with tankers. It was done by engineers, not SC. Because sewers in London are more than twice the height of a man, while here a man gets immersed in the muck. Some people, including women, are so desperate that they resort to instant loans and are then abused, humiliated and blackmailed to force them to repay. "At least 60 Indians have killed themselves after being abused and threatened." BBC. Life is tough in India. Despite Mr Bhalla's percentages.