of hazardous cleaning.

There is a very clear gender division of various types of work that is called manual scavenging in India. The cleaning of dry toilets and carrying of waste to points of disposal is generally done by women, while men are involved in the cleaning of septic tanks and sewers. There is an economic reason for this distribution - the municipality employs workers to clean sewers and septic tanks and hence the salary is better. Cleaning private toilets, on the other hand, pays little and is therefore handed over to the women.