Author
Listed:
- Mariam Zaqout
- Sally Cawood
- Barbara E. Evans
- Dani J. Barrington
Abstract
Manual pit-emptying – the removal of faecal sludge from pits and tanks using hands or basic tools – is a widespread practice in Bangladesh, and in other low- and middle-income countries. Despite this, little is known about the livelihoods of pit-emptiers. This paper analyses data from six cases of pit-emptying in three cities in Bangladesh, across three different operational modes: private cooperatives, government employees and self-employed workers. These cases describe the experiences of emptiers from diverse socio-economic, religious and ethnic backgrounds, operating across a formal–informal spectrum. We find that government employees and self-employed groups are deprived of basic rights, fear a loss of income brought about by mechanisation and cannot access alternative livelihoods. While the status of emptiers in private cooperatives has improved recently due to the support of governmental oranisations (GOs) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the extent to which these cooperatives are sustainable, without the ongoing support of NGOs or GOs, remains unclear. In all modes, sustainable livelihoods are hindered by deep-rooted social and financial barriers. Organisations can support pit-emptiers by designing sanitation interventions that prioritise the human right to decent work, focussing not only on the beneficiaries of universal sanitation, but also on those who work to implement this ambitious goal.
Suggested Citation
Mariam Zaqout & Sally Cawood & Barbara E. Evans & Dani J. Barrington, 2020.
"Sustainable sanitation jobs: prospects for enhancing the livelihoods of pit-emptiers in Bangladesh,"
Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(2), pages 329-347, September.
Handle:
RePEc:taf:ctwqxx:v:42:y:2020:i:2:p:329-347
DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2020.1810560
Download full text from publisher
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.
Corrections
All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:ctwqxx:v:42:y:2020:i:2:p:329-347. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/ctwq .
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through
the various RePEc services.