Asha is a cleaner who is contractually employed by Chitrakoot district’s municipality in northern India. Nearly all the cleaning staff at Chitrakoot’s municipality are from the historically marginalised Dalit community; Asha is among the few women working there. She is a single mother of four children, working to the bone to provide for her family.

“I work from 5 am to noon. Eight hours of non-stop work. The men usually get a tea break. If I stop work for even a minute, I am called lazy. Caste slurs are flung at me,” Asha tells us. Her efficiency is rewarded only with more discrimination. None of the workers is given protective gear to clean out drains and sewers, so Asha wraps her hands in plastic bags to do it manually. She is faster and better than others at her job, but they will not touch a cup of tea if she were to serve it. To feed and educate her four children, she accepts loneliness, humiliation and lack of leisure as occupational hazards.