About 30,000 conservancy workers, known also as sweepers, are employed by the Greater Bombay Municipal Corporation. These workers pick up our garbage, sweep our streets, clean our gutters, load and unload the garbage trucks and work on dumping grounds. All 30,000 of them (men and women) are Dalits and have little or no formal education. Without exception, they despise their work. Most of them are alcoholics and live in poverty, in dismal housing. They are perpetually in debt despite earning what many would call a fancy salary of Rs. 7,000 per month. The men abuse their wives and children. On the death of their husbands usually at a relatively young age, the job passes to the widows. The despair continues.