India, Sept. 5 -- The Bombay High Court has come down heavily on manual scavenging, observing that while India has reached the moon, the "social evil" of the caste system persists, forcing citizens into work that is "below human dignity".

The HC made these comments while quashing a Maharashtra government policy that placed the burden of compensating the kin of workers who died during hazardous cleaning on their employers and private societies.

A division bench of Justices Bharati Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande, in an order passed last week, directed the state government to immediately compensate the victims' dependents. The government can subsequently recover the amount from the responsible private entities or employers, the order said....