Dr. MARIMUTHU KN

Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM), green operations, and circular economy (CE) practices have become fundamental pillars of modern organizational sustainability. Escalating environmental concerns, resource scarcity, climate change, and increasing stakeholder expectations have compelled organizations to transition from traditional linear business models to sustainable and regenerative operational systems. This theoretical study synthesizes contemporary literature to develop an integrated framework explaining the interrelationships among sustainable supply chain management, green operations, and circular economy practices. Drawing upon the Natural Resource-Based View (NRBV), Stakeholder Theory [1], Institutional Theory, Triple Bottom Line (TBL), and Circular Economy Theory [2], the study proposes a comprehensive conceptual model illustrating how sustainable procurement, green manufacturing, reverse logistics, resource efficiency, ecoinnovation, and circular resource flows collectively contribute to environmental, economic, and social sustainability. The paper further identifies research gaps and develops a conceptual foundation for future empirical investigations. The proposed framework provides strategic insights for managers, policymakers, and researchers seeking to improve organizational resilience and long-term sustainable competitiveness.

Manual scavenging the removal of human excreta from dry latrines, drains, septic tanks, and sewers, typically without protective equipment remains legally prohibited in India yet demonstrably persistent, particularly in the southern states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Kerala. This study uses secondary data analysis to examine the scale, mortality, and caste composition of manual scavenging and hazardous sanitation labour in South India, and to evaluate whether recent mechanisation-focused policy has addressed the practice's underlying social basis. Government parliamentary disclosures, statutory commission surveys, an independent civil-society mortality register, and peer-reviewed sociological literature published between 2011 and 2026 were triangulated using a structured thematic protocol. Findings show a consistent, order-of-magnitude gap between early government identification counts and later, more rigorous surveys most pronounced in Karnataka, where an official 2017 denial of the practice's existence gave way to survey estimates exceeding 7,000 workers alongside continuing sewer and septic tank deaths and a national workforce that is approximately 68 percent Scheduled Caste. The study concludes that legislation and technological mechanisation, while necessary, are insufficient to dismantle a practice sustained by caste-based social ascription rather than poverty alone, and it calls for independently verified identification methods, caste-disaggregated monitoring, and rehabilitation policy extended to disaster and emergency sanitation contexts.