Halalkhore Tax

refers to the tax collected by municipal corporation in lieu of providing sewerage facilities to city dwellers. In the year 1973 an amendment to the Municipal law was made and the term replaced by ‘the sewerage tax’. Halalkhore as such refereed to the sweepers who removed refuse and excreta from houses and streets and the Halalkhor community refereed to the ‘Muslim Bhangis’ from the state of UP and associated with sweeping and scavenging. In the absence of adequate sewers, human excreta had to be carried away in straw baskets by halalkhores who were supposed to empty the same into the sea at designated points, often a mile or more away. In the late 1840s, conditions of work were marginally improved by the introduction of carts for halalkhores to clear away the 'night-soil' and receiving stations were built to collect the refuse. Source: Chandavarkar,