Dalit Women Sanitation Workers in Bangladesh Face Deepening Inequality Amid Climate Crisis – Amnesty

Dalit Women Sanitation Workers in Bangladesh Face Deepening Inequality Amid Climate Crisis – Amnesty
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Bangladesh must urgently address the rights violations faced by sanitation workers suffering from caste, gender, and economic discrimination, Amnesty International reported. In its new publication, “Left Behind in the Storm: Dalit Women Sanitation Workers and the Fight for Water and Dignity,” the organization highlights how Dalit women sanitation workers in the coastal districts of Khulna and Satkhira are denied access to safe drinking water, adequate sanitation, and participation in climate relief programs.

Despite their vital public health roles, they remain excluded from policy decisions and largely invisible in government frameworks on water and climate resilience. Amnesty’s report, based on interviews with sanitation workers and officials, found that caste-based exclusion and gender bias force many families to rely on unsafe or distant water sources and inadequate toilets.

The situation worsens after cyclones, floods, and droughts, trapping marginalized workers in cycles of vulnerability and poverty. Workers earn meager wages, and the cost of clean water or flood-resilient toilets remains out of reach. The report urges Bangladesh to collect caste-disaggregated data, adopt a national action plan to eliminate caste-based discrimination, and include Dalit voices in policymaking.

It also calls for a comprehensive anti-discrimination law covering caste and descent, and for international donors to ensure that climate adaptation projects meet equality and inclusion standards. Amnesty warned that without targeted reforms, Bangladesh’s climate resilience efforts will continue to reinforce systemic inequalities instead of dismantling them.