Daliya Jalao: Liberating and rehabilitating manual scavengers in Badaun district of Uttar Pradesh

The Daliya Jalao (literally meaning ‘burn the basket’) initiative sought to eliminate manual scavenging in Badaun district, Uttar Pradesh, through a mission mode approach, generating a high impact within a short period of time. Under the initiative 2,750 manual scavengers were liberated within a year and the initiative has had a profound impact on health indices with no fresh cases of polio reported since 2010. The initiative also took proactive steps to rehabilitate manual scavengers through existing government schemes such as pension schemes, special scholarships for children, rural housing schemes, loans and skill upgradation training. It has sustained itself on the willingness of the community of manual scavengers to organise themselves and eliminate manual scavenging.