In this dissertation, I have analysed the perceptions of illness and health among Dalits in Bokaro. Although the dissertation title uses Dalit as a generic category, my study is restricted to the Hadi Caste in Chas town. Hadis are a community of sweepers in the Municipal village of Chas, Bokaro. They are among the 22 SCs residing in Jharkhand (Census of India 2001). There has been relatively less attention in previous research on Hadis that could analyse the perceptions of illness and health. Further, the traditional engagement of this caste in manual scavenging distinguishes them from the other SCs in the region, which helped me to look at them ethnographically.