Manual scavenging is as much a reality of modern-day urban India, as are pub hopping and mall crawling. How this demeaning profession has survived to this day tells the sorry tale of the vice-like grip of the caste system – both on the perpetrators, who will cry foul if their caste rituals are tampered with, as well as on the victims who, without any choice, literally continue having to ‘take all the shit’.
Where there has been a change it has been with nomenclature. So that while calling someone a ‘bhangi’ (sweeper) can cause a riot, and the profession has remained the same, community members will tell you that they belong to the Valmiki samaj – a sanskritised and perhaps more sanitised name. In cities such as Mumbai and Pune, Valmikis are engaged as ‘safai karamcharis’ (cleaners) in society buildings, their work being the collection and disposal of garbage and the cleaning of common areas such as passages, stairways and compounds.
There are a number of disparate communities, tribals, and nomadic groups from different parts of India, who call themselves ‘valmikis’, claiming to be descendants of Maharishi Valmiki, the first known author of the ‘Ramayana’. While no one has actually established real lineage between Valmiki and these communities, sociologists explain this phenomenon as the ‘sanskritisation’ process among the lower castes. For example, the term ‘bhangi’ in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar has given way to ‘jatav’. Similarly, the community of sanitation workers who call themselves ‘valmikis’ traces its origins to a region that is in present-day Haryana.
Sanitation Updates 
Explanation regarding livelihood issues may give good picture about sanitation workers. Good article.