“Manual Scavenging: The World’s Most Ignored Violation of Human Rights” by Renuka M. is a shockingly honest informative piece on the problem of manual labor, specifically in India. The piece starts off with a brief introduction into the subject of scavenging in India, to remove the waste from citizens’ “toilets” manually. This job is reserved for the lowest of the low, the very bottom of the social ladder in India that may as well be slaves. This piece brings out a hidden and brutal truth that draws attention to a problem that hasn’t been given much light.

“They are literally forced to choose between scavenging for meager pay and starving to death due to no income.” The author tells the reader the whole, terrible truth of manual scavenging, deciding not to sugarcoat any of the solid facts. However distasteful the subject was, I enjoyed reading an honest, straight to the point piece that did not try to make things sound better than they were.