On Sanitation: A Memory Ethnography

This paper is an account of the toilets and manual scavenging in Delhi of the 1960s and the early 1970s. The author, born and brought up in Old Delhi, systematically looks at his memories and makes observations on toilets and lavatories therein, providing their first-hand account. The intricacies of social life are explored here. In a sequel to this paper the author intends to write on how the house and the living patterns changed when flush toilets were installed in the neighbourhoods of Old Delhi.