This is how sewers are cleaned in most Indian cities, including Mumbai, the nation*s booming financial capital: Workers use metal scrapers, brooms or their bare hands to clear drainage and sanitation lines twice a year, before and after the annual monsoon rains.
印度大多数城市的下水道都是这么个清法。包括经济首都孟买。掏粪工使用铁铲，扫帚还有徒手每年疏通下水道污水管两次。季风到来前后各一次
In gutters, workers who earn about $5 a day stand in the waste, which reaches chest high, and use long wooden sticks to clear jams. In some areas, workers crawl through the sewage, wearing no protective gear.
在排水沟里干活，工人们每天挣五美元。污水有齐胸深。要用长木棍疏通。有些地方工人要爬行通过污水管。没带任何防护设备
Mumbai*s skyline is rising by the day, but the growth has come on the beleaguered backs of workers like these. Manual scavenging, as their work is known, was ruled illegal last year, but private contractors hired by the municipal government continue to employ them. Hundreds reportedly die from the work each year.
孟买的天际线逐日升高。但是增长的结果最终落得这些工人的背上的。人工清污去年被判非法。但是市政承包商依然雇佣掏粪工清污。据报道每年都有几百名工人因公殉职。
Many scavengers say they have no alternative.
"I have never been to school. But I want my kids to be educated. Therefore, I have to do various small jobs and this is one of them," said Kale, a man in his mid-40s with wrinkles on his hands and face, who cannot read or write. "Nobody has ever told me that this is banned."
许多掏粪工说他们别无选择。
卡勒，这位四十几岁脸上手上布满皱纹，不会读也不会写的男人。他说，我没上过学，但我想让孩子们上学。我得干各种小工。清污是其中一种。没人跟我说人工清污是法律禁止的
Kale*s co-worker, Manu Pawar, described the humiliating experience of entering a manhole.
"Filth and human excrement are a given, but sometimes we come across a dead dog or a dead rat as well," he said. Broken bottles lurk in the pitch-black sewer system too, he said, pointing at his leg, which was covered with scars and cuts.
卡勒的同事，马吕 帕瓦讲述了进入检查井的可怕经历。
污物和人体排泄物是肯定有的。有时还会遇到死狗死猫。破瓶子也隐藏在下水道系统中，他边说边用手指着腿上的累累伤痕。
Although sewage cleanup has become mechanized in some areas, government figures suggest that 770,000 people either work as sewage cleaners or are supported by them.
有些地方清污用上了机械。但是政府统计数字表明有七十七万人要么是清污工人要么是依赖清污工人生活。
The Tata Institute of Social Sciences, an educational and research organization, found that 80% of the workers die before age 60 because of work-related health problems. In Mumbai, an average of 20 sewer workers die each month from accidents, suffocation or exposure to toxc gases, the study found.
每年孟买有二十个左右的清污工人死于事故，窒息或吸入有毒气体。
More than 95% of sewer workers are members of India*s lowest social class, the Dalits, once known as "untouchables," according to the government*s figures. Labor activist Milind Ranade said the jobs still exst because of widespread apathy toward Dalits, who remain severely marginalized despite efforts to end caste-based discrimination.
百分之九十五掏粪工属于印度最低阶层-贱民，不可接触的人群。
"Hadanupper-caste[person]beenenteringthesewagesystem,wewouldhaveseenanuproar.Butifalower-casteworkerdies,whocares?"Ranadesaid
如果有个高种姓的人走进排污系统，一定会引起一阵骚动，但是一个低种姓的人死了，谁在乎呢?
Activists say the government has not enforced a 2013 law that made it illegal to employ such workers.
人*活动分子怪政府一直不执行2013年通过的一项法律，那个鬼法律认定雇佣手工清淤的工人干活违法
However, the law itself is contradictory because it also specifies tests that should be conducted before workers enter manholes, reflecting the difficulty of outlawing a job that employs so many Indians who would lack alternative work.
但是那个鬼法律也是自相矛盾，它规定工人进入检查井工作前须先作试验。这反映了这有这么多人找不到其他工作情况下，取缔这类工作的艰巨性
India's new prime minister, Narendra Modi, promised to emancipate the poor and promote economic development, but advocates say that getting rid of jobs such as manual scavenging is not immediately practical
新总理莫迪说什么要解放印度穷人促进经济发展，可他又扯什么现在就取缔像人工清淤之类的工作是不切实际的
Passing laws allows the Indian government to argue that it is in line with international standards, but politicians are less interested in ensuring that standards are enforced,
法律的通过让政府可以说这已经符合国际标准了，但是政客可不关心这个国际标准是不是得到落实
The law, for which India's high court set guidelines, applies nationwide.
这个印度高等法院制定了实施细则的法律，适用与印度全境