Manual scavenging is a very old practice in India usually done by Dalit women, a group of people traditionally regarded as untouchables.

This degrading practice is not a career that the Dalits embrace, according to a human rights spokesperson, but it is a job that they inherited from their parents and usually passed on to their children.

A bill was adopted in India recently to eradicate manual scavenging and the UN human rights commissioner applauded this move. Beng Poblete-Enriquez discussed this issue with Cecile Pouilly, spokesperson for the Human Rights Commissioner in Geneva.

Duration: 3’49”