Deep in filth

While India celebrates the International Year of Sanitation, little has been done for the abolition of the degrading work of manual scavenging

Garima Srivastava Delhi

Meena, 22, lives in a Dalit slum in Nandnagri, east Delhi. Her tin-shed house shares a wall with the MCD toilet. As it does not have a door, her only means for privacy is a multi-coloured hand-stitched curtain. The uneven floor is carpeted with two or three layers of cloth, and there are a few plastic chairs she pulls out for her guests. She is willing to offer us tea, but is hesitant: she belongs to the 'untouchable' community.
Meena worked as a manual scavenger since the age of nine, following her mother's footsteps. The job disgusted her, and having done it for more than a decade, she left it and joined an NGO to make members of her community aware of their rights. She now makes designer bindis to earn.
Scavengers is a term normally reserved for the animal kingdom. It refers to animals and birds that feed on carcasses, such as vultures, hyenas, jackals and burying beetles. Then why are human beings called scavengers? According to Government of India's definition, "A scavenger is one who is partially or wholly engaged in the obnoxious and inhuman occupation of manually removing night soil and filth." These scavengers lift human excreta with a broom and a piece of plastic or tin and carry it over their head or in a basket. There are two kinds of scavenging jobs - in dry toilets, from which human excreta is taken by the scavenger to a place for disposal; and cleaning of sewage pits, both in private homes and in municipalities.
According to The Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993, scavenging is an offence. Using or maintaining dry toilets is illegal and liable for criminal punishment, along with a fine. Offenders are also liable to prosecution under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. Despite such laws, manual scavenging still continues.
The working conditions are inhuman, and scavengers are treated with no dignity. What they earn is not even sufficient to feed themselves and their dependents. Scavengers earn Rs 20 to 25 per house, and get a few leftover scraps from the kitchen. One scavenger cannot work in more than 10 to 15 houses in a day. For extra money, they carry household garbage, and clean sewers.
Bezwada Wilson, national convenor of Safai Karamachari Andolan, told Hardnews, "For us it's not just about how much they earn. We are looking at it as a work below human dignity. They are also prone to many diseases and obviously they don't have enough money for their treatment. We stand against the system of the society where one is to defecate and other is to clean. We are looking forward to eradicating this system of scavenging by 2010."
Manual scavengers and their families are known by different names in various parts of the country - balmiki, jamadar and methar in north India and thotti and paki in south India. These names are their identity. Mukesh, Meena's husband, who used to work as a private scavenger and is now working to clean MCD toilets in East Delhi, says, "People call us balmiki or jamadar, as if we did not have any names. We clean their homes, but they don't give us water to clean our hands or even to drink. This sense of rejection is the worst emotion, and I pray no one should go through it." Scavengers belong to the bottom of Hindu social hierarchy, are considered untouchable and are the most severely discriminated against. Clearly, even after 60 years of the Constitution, which suggests that untouchability is an offence, India is not shining for this community.
Article 17 of the Indian Constitution suggests "abolition of untouchability" and forbids its practice in any form. Any disability arising out of untouchability is to be a punishable offence. Under the Protection of Civil Rights Act 1955, any discrimination on the ground of untouchability is an offence, and it is the duty of public servants to investigate such offences.
However, the plight of Shakuntala (40), working as a manual scavenger in Nandnagri, East Delhi, proves that violation of this Act is common. "I am into this job since I can remember. I have four kids to look after. My husband died few years ago. Everyday I collect food from the households I work for and I eat it with my kids. We have to be very careful while working. Even if by mistake I touch something I am abused. I can't send my kids to school as I don't have money. They don't have anything to do so they play or wonder around with other boys of the community. I am worried that they will be spoilt," she informs Hardnews.
Indian literature too has portrayed a grim picture of Indian society at times that encourages 'untouchability'. One example is the novel The Untouchable, by Mulk Raj Anand, in which the protagonist Bhaka is an untouchable who has a tough time fighting against caste discrimination. The rigid hierarchy of Hindu society does not allow him to move upfront in life, as he is rejected as "polluted, polluted, polluted" by caste Hindus. Even his words do not count when his sister gets molested by a Brahmin, because he is an outcast.
Both Wilson and the government may share the goal of eradication of scavenging by 2010, but there is a difference in the number of scavengers they want to rehabilitate. A report by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment suggests that there are 342,468 scavengers and dependents who are yet to be rehabilitated. Wilson, however, says, "We don't have the exact figures, and it is also not possible to get that, but there are almost 13 lakh scavengers in the country, 90 per cent of whom are women. Most of them are widows who have to look after four or five children. I have no idea how the government can claim that there are just around three lakh scavengers." Sunil Kumar Singh, Joint secretary, Ministry of Housing and Poverty Alleviation, says, "There are around six lakh dry toilets in different parts of the country and by 2010 we will do away with them. As a result, scavenging will also be eradicated. People who are working as scavengers will be trained and deployed for the construction of flush toilets."
This is not the first time civic authorities are talking about time-bound eradication of manual scavenging. A National Action Plan for eradication of manual scavenging by 2007 was undertaken by the Ministry of Housing and Poverty Alleviation in 2005. The plan failed and a new goal had to be set.
The government may be planning to rehabilitate scavengers, but a few years back, they were not even willing to accept that such a custom still exists in the country. Wilson says, "In 2003, we, along with 13 other organisations and individuals across the country, filed a Public Interest litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court on the continued existence of manual scavenging and the non-implementation of the Manual Scavenging Prohibition Act. In its first hearing, the Supreme Court directed all states and Union territories to submit the status reports on scavenging and implementation of the Act. It took almost one year for the states and territories to file the affidavit, in which they denied the existence of scavenging and dry latrines in their states. In order to prove them wrong, we did a rapid sample survey in 18 states. The data was submitted in the Apex court along with verification survey and photographic evidence, disproving the claims of state and Union territories."
Reasons for not being able to abolish manual scavenging is clear - lack of co- ordination between the state and Union government. At the time when the Union government has set a goal for eradication of scavenging, the state governments are in denial mode. At least the latest affidavits filed by the state governments of Delhi, Daman & Diu, Lakshwadeep and Kerala to the Supreme Court suggest so. The affidavits denies the existence of scavengers in these states and Union territories. Reports by the Ministry of Social Justice and Welfare, however, suggest that there are still a number of manual scavengers to be rehabilitated.
Scavenging being a thoroughly undignified job, has health risks as well. The petition filed by the Safai Karmachari Andolan also carried a report by the Environmental Sanitation Institute, Gandhi Asharam, which said the majority of manual scavengers suffered from anaemia, diarrhoea and vomiting. The report also states that 62 per cent of the scavengers suffer from respiratory diseases, 32 per cent from skin infection, 42 per cent from jaundice and 23 per cent from trachoma, which ultimately leads to blindness. Meena agrees, "We are prone to skin diseases. We develop itching in skin and eyes. It also infects our eyesight. We can't go to a doctor for checkups so we really don't know what other diseases we have."
The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has come up with a central sector scheme of Self Employment for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers (SRMS) as a national priority. Arbind Prasad, joint secretary, says "Under the scheme, the identified scavengers and their dependents will be provided a subsidy and a loan for self-employment ventures. Beneficiaries will also be provided training for up to a year for skill development. Credit will be provided by the banks, which will charge interest from the beneficiaries at subsidised rates."
However, those who are meant to benefit from the scheme do not even have ration cards and caste certificates. Shakuntala (70), from east Delhi, is continuing with her job because her husband's arms became useless after an accident. "My family survives on what I take back home. I had one daughter, but she died last year while delivering her baby. People say this might be because she was working as a scavenger while she was pregnant. At the age when other women relax and sit at home, I have to work. If I don't, my family will starve. My kids are not educated, so they can't do office job. We even tried to take loans from banks to set up a vegetable shop, but we don't have a ration card as address proof. Bank employees also ask for caste certificates, which we don't have."
The report by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment suggests that Gujarat, Maharashtra, Assam, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Orissa and Haryana have a maximum number of scavengers to be rehabilitated. R K Sinha, director sanitation, Department of Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation, however, paints a positive picture of the efforts taken by the government, "The government is putting in a lot of money to do away with dry toilets, which will ultimately lead to the prohibition of scavenging. The government is likely to spend Rs 1,000 crore on the construction of toilets in different parts of the country. Since 2004, the sanitation growth rate has increased to six per cent from one per cent in 2001. This growth is due to the Nirmal Gram Panchayat Yojna. Even China has a sanitation growth rate of only one to two per cent. Sikkim has achieved full sanitation and Tripura is likely to achieve it by the end of this year. Nandigram is the first block in the country to achieve full sanitation. A place where people do not have much to eat but they have a toilet at home." Though he accepts that more willingness is required to achieve the target.
Conditions are bad even 70 years after Gandhi attempted to abolish scavenging and untouchability. Wilson says, "The basic reason is the social stigma, the deep-rooted caste system and feudal ideology. Another reason is lack of political willingness. Government officials or bureaucrats are allotted money to implement government schemes, but many don't do their jobs. They abide by the caste-oriented mindset. They ask why these people need loans or money. Human touch is missing from the society."
The self-styled vikas purush (and hindutva icon), chief minister of Gujrat, Narendra Modi in his book Karmyogi states, "scavenging must have been a spiritual experience for the Balmiki caste." He later goes on to say, "At some point of time somebody must have got enlightenment in scavenging. They must have thought it is their duty to work for the happiness of the entire society and the Gods." With a chief minister having such mindset, we can hardly have faith in the political willingness for eradication of manual scavenging.
Wilson who is also convenor of the sub-group of 11th Plan working group on Scheduled Castes says, "In my report, I had suggested that safai karmacharis should not be considered as one group. There are three different kinds of safai karmacharis - manual scavengers, sewage workers and ragpickers - with different sets of problems. Let's see how government reacts to this."
On the one hand, we wallow in the IT boom and our ever-growing GDP and dream of becoming a superpower, while on the other hand, we do nothing to discourage untouchability and casteism. Behind the glitter of a shining India exists a dark Bharat, yearning for light. It's really a matter of shame. Ours is a country with tall claims of deserving to become a superpower, but at the grassroots level it is powerless.