| A
national shame
S.Viswanathanan
The Hindu
31 January, 2006.
INDIA STINKING — Manual
Scavengers in Andhra Pradesh and Their Work:
Gita Ramaswamy; Navayana Publishing, 54, I Floor,
Savarirayalu Street, Pondicherry-605001. Rs. 100..
Nearly 15 years after the Union
Government brought in the Employment of Manual
Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition)
Act, 1993, manual scavenging, one of the most
degrading and dehumanising of the occupations
`assigned' to Dalits under the hierarchical Hindu
caste system, remains not the least affected by
the legislation.
The Act sought to abolish manual
scavenging by declaring employment of manual scavengers
for removal of human excreta an offence, and to
prohibit construction of dry latrines. The Act's
failure to make a dent on the obnoxious system
is attributed to the apathy of the Governments
at the Centre and in the States. While the Centre
took four years to notify the Act, the State Governments
took three more years to adopt the Act as required
by the Constitution. Even after the Act came into
force in many States by 2001, no significant fall
in the number of dry latrines or those engaged
in manual scavenging has been reported.
Ironically, it was brought to
the notice of the Supreme Court in 2005 in the
course of its hearing of petitions seeking enforcement
of the Act that the number of manual scavengers
increased from 5.88 lakhs in 1992 to 7.87 lakhs
in the next 10 years. The Union Ministry of Social
Justice and Empowerment has, however, put the
number of manual scavengers in 2002-03 at 6.76
lakhs. (The Andhra Pradesh-based Safai Karamchari
Andolan, an organisation working among the manual
scavengers, has stated that 13 lakh people from
Dalit communities continue to be employed as manual
scavengers in the country, in private homes, community
dry latrines managed by the municipalities and
public sector undertakings including the Railways
and the Army.)
The issues
Gita Ramaswamy's India Stinking studies
in detail the issues relating to manual scavenging
with particular reference to Andhra Pradesh, which
accounts for about 1.6 lakh manual scavengers
employed for cleaning private and public latrines.
In a historical overview she traces the origin
of the manual scavenging to the Narada Samhita,
which mentions the disposal of human excreta as
one of the 15 duties assigned to the slaves. "In
Vajasaneyi Samhita," the author
states, "chandalas were referred to as slaves
engaged in the disposal of human excreta."
In her opinion, manual scavenging expanded phenomenally
and entrenched itself under the British rule,
particularly in the mid-18th Century that marked
the beginning of industrialisation and urbanisation
in the subcontinent. "When urbanisation set
in — which should have rationally led to
scientific sewage practices — Hindu society
found it convenient to force `madigas' and `bhangis'
into manual scavenging," writes Gita.
The people who were brought from villages to lay
roads and railway tracks were later used for menial
jobs. Stating that the British `institutionalised',
if not invented, manual scavenging, she observes,
"Technology is supposed to remove social
prejudice; however, the technology of sanitation
was structured to deepen social prejudice in India."
Gita, who stayed with manual
scavengers for several months, gives a poignant
account of their struggle and emphasises the need
to abolish manual scavenging at the earliest.
"The existing practices of sanitation in
municipalities need to be reformed and upgraded
so that no one — from any caste —
has to pick up faeces manually," she pleads.
She has devoted two chapters to explain the splendid
work done by Safai Karamchari Andolan under the
dynamic leadership of its founder, Bezwada Wilson,
to the cause of liberating this deprived section.
The text of the Act on abolition of manual scavenging
and the conflicting views of Gandhiji and Dr.
Ambedkar on the subject are valuable additions
to the book, which also carries a brilliant foreword
by Bezwada Wilson.
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