Ghettoization of Municipal Sanitation Workers in Mumbai: A Case of Occupational Segregation

Abstract

The “religion” and “caste” identities are features of ghettoization in India. But its urban space has an added feature of occupational segregation, particularly the Municipal Sanitation Workers (MSWs) characterized by caste stereotype and socioeconomic adversity. An investigation on this count in Mumbai city reveals some stark realities. In an attempt to examine the possible ghettoization of MSWs in Mumbai, we gathered information from 540 MSWs in six municipal wards that asserts a majority of MSWs as migrants from various parts of India to Mumbai city. These workers reside in the ghettoized communities in Mumbai, particularly in labour colonies exclusively developed for them that not only have an unhygienic environment but also proximity to hazardous places. Characterization of this particular occupational group suggests an intersectionality of caste, migration and occupation resulting in their ghettoization. Evidence emerging from this enquiry suggests that sanitation workers have been ghettoized for generations and trapped in a vicious cycle of poor education, low living standards, deteriorating health condition, poverty and lack of alternative employment that have retained them in the same profession. This unfolds a need for understanding of sustained adversity and its implied clustering to imagine pathways of socio-economic mobility for certain occupations in urban India.