Dealing with the stigma of dirty work

Abstract

Indians have traditionally and in the recent times emphasised keeping the environment clean internally and externally Mahatma Gandhi the father of the Indian nation once stated 8216 cleanliness is next to Godliness 8217 Recently the Indian Prime Minister has launched the 8216 Clean India Mission 8217 to honor Gandhi on his birth anniversary For a country that has shown so much outward and historical concern towards cleanliness it is noteworthy that a high level of stigma is associated with cleaning and those individuals associated with it The job of cleaning is seen as 8216 dirty work 8217 and cleaners such as waste pickers are considered stigmatised In the relevant academic literature work is considered as dirty if it is physically socially or morally tainted and viewed by others as demeaning This research seeks to study how waste pickers cope with the stigma associated with their job Hence the research question of the present study is how do waste pickers cope with the stigma associated with their work While public health popular media and economic perspectives examine the physical and living conditions of the waste pickers academic literature so far has largely overlooked the coping mechanisms of such workers in this relatively informal sector The present study attempts to address this gap It is based on interviews with 40 waste pickers which included 32 men and 8 women Interviews were conducted through a semi structured interview protocol across 8 locations in Delhi newline newline