In a developing country with limited resources, such as India, the majority of cleaning in metropolitan areas is still done by hand. The purpose of this article is to examine public toilet cleaners in the Thoothukudi area of Tamilnadu's awareness of educational changes, as well as their socio-economic profile and issues. This article, which is a part of the Indian Council of Social Science Research – Impactful Policy Research in Social Science (ICSSR – IMPRESS), New Delhi aims to comprehend the above-mentioned fundamentals in order to help the policy makers for better education, rights, power and work opportunities for the impoverished. Secondary data was gathered from published books, e-books, periodicals, newspapers, research articles, research journals, e-journals, and other sources. According to the study, the majority of respondents (70.40%) were employed on a long-term basis. Only 29.60% of the workers were on a temporary basis. The study finds that the link between educational change awareness and socioeconomic characteristics, such as sex, personal income, and kind of job, is significant at the 5% level, with a P-value less than 0.05. The null hypothesis has consequently been discarded for these variables. The null hypothesis has therefore been accepted for these variables. It is clear that the sample respondents prioritised the order of health problems when cleaning the public restroom. Using Garrett's score, it can be deduced that. Respondents placed respiratory disease first, followed by allergy disorders, in terms of priority of health problems. Back discomfort, asthma, and other health issues were placed third and fourth, respectively. Eye illnesses were ranked fourth. Public toilet cleaners suffered some injuries while cleaning toilets was ranked sixth, and communicable disorders was placed fifth. Safety precautions, regular medical camps, eliminating manual scavenging, and increasing public awareness of government programmes can all help to improve the quality of life of public toilet cleaners.

Keywords: public toilet, manual scavengers, occupational hazards, respiratory disease, quality of life.