Mumbai, India (CNN) -- I normally don't dwell on what I am going to wear before I go on a shoot. It's usually something presentable, comfortable and preferably in a bright "TV" color that makes my cameraman Rajesh happy. This time, though, I was perplexed. I was about to film a story on manual scavenging. We were going to film people who clean human excreta. Knowing I would have to get close to human waste while filming, I opted for a pair of old water-resistant hiking boots. I told Rajesh to wear old shoes too. My feet were prepared for what lay ahead. I was not.
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Ganesh Shinde, 42, has been clearing human waste in Mumbai since 2007
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It's called manual scavenging -- the removal of human waste from sites with no flush system
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Life expectancy is low, with many developing asthma, skin infections and tuberculosis
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The majority are Dalits -- people belonging to the lowest strata of India's caste system
On October 2, he's launching a Clean @placeholder mission -- a nationwide movement that aims to solve India's sanitation problems in five years.