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“Dukh kyanthi ganvoo?” (What sorrow can I say)the bhangis ask. Eight hundred thousand bhangi families continue to make a living carrying nightsoil away from dry toilets in baskets, standing neck-deep in pits filled with excreta in order to clean them, dragging away rotting carcasses, delivering messages of death and disease, opening and sewing up corpses no forensic expert will touch, asphyxiating in city sewers.... Their names are Kachro (Garbage) and Melo (Dirty). Their new clothes are stitched from shrouds. This is the horrifying and immensely moving story of their lives in modern India.
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Manual scavengers exist under different caste names throughout the country, such as the Bhangis/Halakhor in Gujarat, the Pakhis in Andhra Pradesh, the chuhars in Punjab, the Dumras in Rajasthan and the Sikkaliars in Tamil Nadu. Socially, scavengers are untouchable among untouchables. They are completely sealed off from the mainstream of social life. Acceptance of the caste system, which makes each caste associated with a particular profession, is the root cause of the problem concerning the denial of human rights to scavengers. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights signed by India with other nations on December 10, 1948, says : “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or discrimination.” In our casteist society, there are no other avenues for them to earn their living. Sweepers and scavengers, though they perform essential tasks for city dwellers, remain an utterly neglected section. Their work is traditionally regarded as ‘degrading’ and ‘defiled’. Society has always kept them at a distance. Not all scavengers are employed in municipal corporations. Many are in private employment without any rules and regulations. What is common to all these informal sectors is that neither the jobs nor the terms and conditions of employment of safai kamgars are defined. Most safai kamgars do not benefit from the general laws governing employment -for example, the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947; the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 -as these are not applicable to this category of workers in the city and where they do apply as in the municipal corporation of existing legislation is hardly implemented. They do not have security of employment, nor any help at times of illness, in capacity due to accident or retirement. Safai kamgars are outside the pale of any kind of legislative rights or protection. The work of scavengers nails the clearing of waste material, including human excreta and garbage. It is they who maintain the complicated sewage disposal system as in other cities, which at times involves serious risks and calls for much courage. There is thus a distinct and identifiable occupation/profession very essential to the city. The socio-religious and cultural situation in which they operate is such that the occupation/profession and the individuals who pursue it bear a stigma; since the work is ‘dirty’ those doing it are ‘unclean’. Though innovations and improved equipment like the flush system, long-handle brooms and protective clothing tend to diminish direct contact of the workers with the waste matter, the stigma persists. The area where they live are often called as ‘Bhangi Pada’, ‘Bhangi Chawl’, ‘Anna Basti’ or ‘Valmiki Basti’.
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A majority of safai kamgars have been working for 10 hours or more a day. Quite early in the morning, they have to start cleaning the public utility places, buildings, housing institutions, households, etc, before the general populace start their work. For a large number of them work continues for the whole day.
Ramkrishna is a safai kamgar residing at Bharat Nagar, Bandra (East). He had been working for 19 years in ‘Chedde Mansion’ situated at the ‘posh area’ of Pali Hill, Bandra. His job includes cleaning two staircases of a four storeyed building, collecting and disposing garbage from 13 flats, cleaning the toilets in 13 flats and sweeping the building compound. For all this he receives Rs 35 per month. When his community organisation took up the matter with the owner of the building, the owner increased the salary to Rs 50 per month. Those working for urban municipalities are paid Rs. 30 - 40 a day (less than US$1), and those working privately are paid Rs. 5 (US$0.13) a month for each house they clean. Even those working for municipalities rarely get paid and are offered little health benefits for a job that entails many health hazards. In cities scavengers are actually lowered into filthy gutters in order to unclog them; they are fully immersed in human waste without any protective gear. In Bombay, children made to dive into manholes have died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Krishnappa Kandappa, resides at Kachipada, Malad, about 20 minutes walking distance from the suburban railway station. He is a ‘daily recruit’ employee of Municipal ‘D’ Ward, Grant Road, that is about one hour train journey. To ensure that he obtains work at this place, he has to report to the ‘ward office’ at 6.30 am, which necessitates him leaving home at 4.45 am. He works there till 10.30 am. He works at two more places later, in the area. He returns home by 5.30 pm.
Forty-year-old Manju, a manual scavenger employed by the urban municipality, described her daily routine and wages: In the morning I work from 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. cleaning the dry latrines. I collect the feces and carry it on my head to the river half a kilometer away seven to ten times a day. In the afternoon I clean the gutters. Another Bhangi collects the rubbish from the gutters and places it outside. Then I come and pick it up and take it one kilometer away. My husband died ten years ago since then I have been doing this. Today I earn Rs. 30 a day (US$0.75). Nine years ago I earned Rs. 16 (US$0.40), then Rs. 22 (US$0.55), and for the last two years it has been Rs. 30. But the payments are uncertain. For the last two months we have not received anything. Every two months they pay, but there is no certainty. We are paid by the Nagar Palika municipality chief officer.
Bachubhai Chaganbhai, who suffered from tuberculosis. He claimed that the illness was due to “working as a cleaner. I used to clean open latrines. Because of this work I am sick. I stopped working five years ago and have been sick with TB ever since.” Because Bachubhai was a “permanent” worker, he received Rs. 1,500 (US$37.50) pension per month. He used to earn Rs. 2,000 (US$50) a month, or approximately Rs. 65 (US$1.63) a day.
There is a general dearth of official records on safai kamgars. Studies which deal with this class of workers treat them either as part of a larger social group, for example, as untouchable, scheduled castes and slum-dwellers, or deal with a particular aspect of their life, like the conditions of female scavengers.
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Under the leadership of Dr.B.R.Ambedkar the Untouchables began to organise themselves and demand share in political power, administration and facilities in educational institutions. Mahatma Gandhi opposed these demands and did his best to weaken the organisations of the Untouchables and also the constitutional concessions and rights which they had achieved in 1932. Power was transferred by the British to Upper Castes and Arya brahmins in 1947. A new constitution of India was to be drafted and owing to the experience and knowledge coupled with the love for the people of India, Dr. Ambedkar was assigned this job and appointed as Chairman of the Drafting Committee as well as the first Law Minister of Independent India. Earlier he had served as Labour Minister (1942-1946) in the Executive Council of Viceroy.
Constitution contains many provisions guaranteeing equality, freedom of speech and religion, abolition of untouchability and discrimination, abolition of slavery, bonded labour, religious prostitution, promotion of education, share in the legislature and administration in favour of the discriminated against people etc. Quite naturally this went against the interests of powerful dominating and ruling classes who had been enjoying monopoly of power, privileges and prestige. Ruling classes was not willing to foresake privileges and power and commit ‘harakiri’. It is easy to make very liberal, generous and high sounding laws but it is difficult to enforce them or effectively implement them. After the death of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, Scavengers haven’t had a leader to plead for their Salvation
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Scavengers do not get media attention because they have been suffering the indignity of physically cleaning and carrying human excreta for centuries without protest. They continue to sweep streets, clean drains and sewers, remove human, animal waste without any one from amongst them or other castes ever raising even a little finger of protest on their behalf. Even those leaders who claim to espouse their cause end up only feathering their own nests. In fact these so-called leaders, once they are installed in offices of importance, often try to maintain distance from the community whose backing in the first place helps them gain status and acceptability in our hierarchial society. Scavengers are defenceless people waiting for a redeemer who does not seem to be coming. We quietly dismiss them at the backdoors after flinging at them the day’s leftover of the kitchen. In small towns, they start their day in dark shadows early in the morning, running between lanes and bylanes, cleaning dry latrines and collecting human excreta to carry it to tankers which cart it away to disposal sites, usually on the periphery of towns.
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Although untouchability has been banned, it has made no difference to scavenging. Laying down of underground sewers, provision of septic tanks linked to toilets can help liberate scavenger from cleaning toilets. But most civic bodies in the country claim that they lack funds to provide sewers or septic tanks. The law banning untouchability (Article 17 and 42 of the Constitution and the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955) does not help in this respect at all. Seven years after the adoption of Constitution a very weak and ineffective law was passed by the parliament under the title “Untouchability Offences Act 1955”. This had to be amended in 1976 and the title was changed to Protection of Civil Rights Act 1955". Another law to prevent and punish atrocities which were being committed against the untouchables had to be enacted in 1989. Atrocities were committed to terrorise the awakening untouchables who were organising themselves to assert the rights guaranteed under the Constitution - namely equality, equal treatment, minimum wages under the law, reform in land legislation, right to education, etc. The sporadic attempts by private persons or social organisations have not changed the situation. The question of social acceptability is not a matter of law; it is an attitudinal problem for the solution of which reformers are needed.
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In 1970, Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak founded the Sulabh Shauchalaya Sansthan, later named Sulabh International. The primary objective of this organization was to prevent environmental pollution by promoting low-cost sanitation facilities. While trying to solve the problem of sanitation in the country, it also seeks to rehabilitate scavengers and their family members into the mainstream. But though many of the scavengers are employed in this sulabh international, but they are still not getting the worth for which they are working. All the profit is taken away by bania Bindeshwar pathak or the contractors. And not only this but bania Bindeshwar Pathak has been awarded several national and international awards, including the Padma Bhushan, K. P. Goenka Award and the International Saint Francis Prize.
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Many Commissions have been set up to promote the constitutional provisions and also to scrutinise their working. National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Minority Commission, Women’s Commission, Commission for Scavengers and Sweepers (Sanitary workers) and a top heavy Human Rights Commission are functioning at the Centre. In a 1997 report, the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis claimed that manual scavengers are “totally cut off from the mainstream of progress” and are “still subjected to the worst kind of oppression and indignities. What is more pathetic is the fact that manual scavenging is still largely a hereditary occupation. Safai karamcharis are no doubt the most oppressed and disadvantaged section of the population.” According to the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis, the progress “has not been altogether satisfactory.” As a result it has benefited only “a handful of safai karamcharis and their dependents. One of the reasons for unsatisfactory progress of the Scheme appears to be inadequate attention paid to it by the State Governments and concerned agencies.” When confronted with the existence of manual scavenging and dry latrines within their jurisdiction, state governments often deny their existence altogether or claim that a lack of water supply prevents states from constructing flush latrines. This despite the fact that a sum of Rs. 4,640,000,000 (US$116 million) was allocated to the scheme under the government’s Eighth Five Year Plan. Activists claim that the resources, including government funds, exist for construction and for the rehabilitation of scavengers; what is lacking is the political will to do so. Members of the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis consider it imperative that the commission be “vested with similar powers and facilities as are available to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.” Currently the commission only has advisory powers and no authority to summon or monitor cases.
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National Safai Karamchari Finance & Development Corporation was incorporated in January, 1997 under Section 25 of the Company Act as a non-profit company and an apex institution aimed at alround socio-economic upliftment of Safai Karamahcaris and their dependents through out India and to extend concessional financial assistance for establishment of income generating and viable projects, as an alternative mean of employment. The Scheme of Pre-Matric Scholarship for Children of those engaged in unclean occupations assists the children of scavengers, sweepers having traditional links with scavenging, flayers and tanners irrespective of their religion to pursue education upto Matriculation level. There is no income ceiling prescribed under the scheme.
Courtsey:
1) National Commission for Safai Karamcharis, The Role of the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis in Liberation and Rehabilitation of Safai Karamcharis and their Dependents (New Delhi: Government of India, 1997), p. 1.
2) The week, Aug 15, 1999
3) Human Rights Watch interviews with group of manual scavengers.
Compiled by - Mulvasi, Delhi
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