Caste and Covid-19: Recasting Sanitation Work in India
Channel: Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung
Date: 2022-08-02

Lecture 3 of the «Anti-Caste Histories and Solidarities: Lectures Series»
Watch the whole series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvnBzZOjEg-Gr-7O8R-CkFVPwYpZS3pos

Lecturer: Kanthi Wwaroop
Moderator: Palashi Vaghela

Since time immemorial, caste has played a decisive role in determining sanitation work in India. In the wake of the COVID - 19 outbreak, the role of sanitation workers in containing the infection spread has been widely discussed. Here, the focus is on the sacrifices of sanitation workers by foreclosing any possible debate on their rights. For India, COVID -19 also proved to be a catalyst of social and
technological change that brought globally circulating discourses and practices which put sanitation work on a new footing —a discourse and practice beyond caste.
While COVID-19 provoked the conceptual transformation of sanitation workers from taboo figures to more respected workers in the valued cluster of public health warriors, this acknowledgement and recognition did not last long, rapidly fading away with the disappearance of fear induced by the virus. Through insights I gained from my fieldwork in Hyderabad, I discuss how these are complex transformations where certain forms of old associations between dirt, caste, and occupation are reproduced in newer ways