Manual scavengers, victims of caste pyramid

BOTTOM LINE: It's a practice that deprives thousands of their fundamental right to live with dignity.

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• No help from Govt, manual scavengers left in the lurch
• Scavenging deeply rooted in caste system

Keywords: Caste, Manual Scanvengers

New Delhi: The focus on this week’s 30 Minutes is perhaps the most degrading practice of 21st century in India - a practice that deprives thousands of their fundamental right to live with dignity.

Meet Bhuri with her broom and a basket, every morning she makes her way to the upper caste houses in her village - Gohad in Madhya Pradesh.

Her job is to clean toilets, pick other people's excreta. Bhuri is a manual scavenger. She has been scavenging for last 10 years soon after she got married.

Bhuri says, “I used to hate the foul smell, I used to vomit after a while I got used to it. Now it's not a problem.”

Molded into submission Bhuri has responsibilities - the four children and a husband who barely makes enough money to keep the home fires burning.

“My husband gambles and drinks. I go to work and he just drinks. Sometimes I have to beg for food to feed my children, “ Bhuri adds.

The Valmikis of Madhya Pradesh, the Bhangis of Gujarat, Pakhis in Andhra and the Sikkaliars of Tamil Nadu are all manual scavengers.

Their daily job is to pick up other people's excreta from dry toilets using brooms and baskets. This is not something they choose to do but something they're born into - because they are at the very bottom of the caste pyramid.

More than 50 such women in Gohad go to work with brooms and baskets every morning. They're all from Dalit sub castes. They all got married into scavenging families. And the job came as a legacy - passed on from the mother-in-law to the daughter-in-law.

Ladkunwar, who was working as a scavenger says, “I had to do it because women in the family did it. My mother-in-law forced me into it.”

Cleaning dry toilets and manually removing human waste is a violation of human rights and dignity and a punishable offence. The Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act of 1993 says - offenders can face a jail term of up to one year or fined Rs 2000.

But 15 years on, the ground reality is that this law is far from being implemented.

Valmikis don't have too many options. If they wish to take up another occupation, it is not allowed. Born into a Valmiki family you can only become a sweeper or a scavenger.

Even a minute in this overpowering stench seems too long but thousands across the country have been doing this every morning for years now. These women go through the worse possible form of caste oppression. Even in the 21st century, caste hierarchy and untouchability prevent them from rising to any other job.

“There's no other work for Valmikis in this village because we're untouchable. Who will give us a respectable job?” Ladkunwar questions.

Shame comes with very little money these scavengers scrape a meager Rs 10 to Rs 20 per month from every house they clean. Come afternoon and they go back to the same houses this time scavenging for food.

Bismillah, a resident of Gohad, believes in God and in the caste-system. Picking up human waste is the domain of the downtrodden. Ironically, till some time back, Bismillah was herself discriminated against - for belonging to the minority community.

Bismillah says, “Who will clean? If the sweeper gets better work then who will do this work?”

Article 15 of the Constitution of India talks of every citizen's fundamental right to equality. It says, "No person shall be discriminated on the basis of caste, colour, language etc. Every person shall have equal access to public places."

But manual scavengers in every part of the country are still outcasts.

In Kishangarh in Chhattarpur district, even the village barber refuses to oblige Valmikis because they just cannot be touched. Valmikis travel to the nearest town - 15 to 20 kilometers away - to get a simple haircut.

Santosh Kumar Singh who is a barber says, “Valmikis stay within their limits and don't come to us.”

The village hand pump is also out of bounds. Mehtars or Valmikis are not allowed to draw water or enter the house of God. Hotels and teashops keep separate utensils for the untouchables.

Ladkunwar is still caught in the grind. She gave up scavenging two years ago but the she is yet to be freed of the taint.

Ladkunwar says, “They don't give us drinking water, cut our hair or iron our clothes. They don't even allow us to stand in their compound.”

Even today the caste lines are clearly drawn here in Alipur. The Valmiki community is not allowed to go beyond this point at the village well. If they need water, someone from the upper caste has to give it to them from a distance. Ironically if somebody falls into this well, it is the Valmiki community that is expected to rescue them.

It is not easy to wash away a history of inequality. The upper caste Brahmin condemns Valmikis as-the untouchable.

Bhagwati Prasad Kankar a Brahmin farmer, says, “We Brahmins have been conducting religious ceremonies for years. Our conscience doesn't allow us to commit this wrong act of eating with a Valmiki.”

While the caste discrimination clogs - the non-existent infrastructure breeds more scavenging.

In 2003, the Madhya Pradesh Government promised to connect all dry toilets to a drainage system. But in Gohad there's no sign of any drainage, dry toilets are still in use and the Mehtar or Valmiki community are expected to keep them clean.

Scavengers don't just live in the back of beyond. Nand Nagri in Delhi is home to many scavenger families.

Sudha has spent a lifetime picking human waste. Even after 20 years she hasn't forgotten the stench of her first encounter.

The foul smell crept into her system and Sudha has developed respiratory problems.

Asthma, tuberculosis and jaundice - most scavengers succumb to diseases and many simply seek refuge in alcohol.

Safai Karamchari Andolan convenor Bezwada Wilson says, “They cannot tolerate the smell, and they cannot see the human excreta every day. To escape all these things, they will take some liquor some cheap liquor and they will just sleep. And next day morning again they will go on and start cleaning.”

Like Sudha, Sharda has been cleaning dry toilets and sewers in Nand Nagri for over 25 years. Her fate is sealed but hopes her children will escape the drudgery of drains

Sharda says, “I want my children to do well. I don't want them to ruin their lives like me. I want them to go to office.”

Not one of these manual scavengers across Madhya Pradesh and Delhi want to do what they do. But the lack of opportunity and caste discrimination has condemned them to this degrading practice.