Manual scavenging – the worst surviving symbol of untouchability

“No modern country in the world forces human being to enter sewers to clean. Why then does India use manual scavenging? It is because we have caste which has for ages been forced to do it for minimal pay”                                                                
                                                                                                              -- Dilip Mondal (poet and activist)


We regard many professions with high dignity. Some of them are  Civil Servants, Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers and so on. We all embrace such profession as they possess a very high position in the society. Have you ever thought of people who in spite of doing their job lose their dignity in our very own country?

 ‘Manual scavengers’ you may have noted this word in newspaper articles, which would have said “A municipal cleaner lost his life due to asphyxiation entering a pit hole while cleaning the sewers”. What prompts a person to do this job which has no assurance of life?
This dehumanizing practice is prevalent across the country, and is done by people who fall lowest in the caste hierarchy. Manual scavenging is caste based and gender biased occupation, especially women are involved more in such activities. Manual scavenging is more prevalent especially on railway tracks and platforms across India. This sewer cleaning involves many health hazards like exposure to harmful gases, cardiovascular degeneration, respiratory system problems and leads to death in the long run.

Manual scavenging (cleaning sewers and clearing human excreta from open-pit toilets) is prohibited under the 'Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013. In spite of this law being implemented all over the country, incidents of death of manual scavengers are reported very often.


A report released by Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment states that 20,500 people have been identified as involved in manual scavenging across 18 states in India. The Socio economic caste census of 2011 reported 1.82 lakh families had at least one member employed in manual scavenging.
Safai Karmachari Andolan is a movement which aims to completely eradicate manual scavenging from India. The movement began with the efforts of the youth from the community, led by Bezwada Wilson, who was born into a family of manual scavengers, and had seen the injustices meted out to them all his life.
Bezwada Wilson, National Convenor of the Safai Karmachari Andolan and Ramon Magsaysay Award winner

 Mr.Bezwada Wilson was awarded Raman Magsaysay award -2016 for carrying out such revolutionary activity all over the country. Government initiation such as National Safai Karamcharis Financial and Development Corporation (NSKFDC) has been designated as the nodal Agency for implementation of the Central Sector Self Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers (SRMS) under the aegis of the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment. NSKFDC disburses loans and gives skill based training to manual scavengers to source their income through other activities.
What can be done?

Availability of cheap labour is the sole reason of prevalence of manual scavenging. To eradicate the profession of manual scavenging, it is important to provide the people with alternate profession.

Our central government through local governing bodies must identify the people and provide alternate profession to those targeted people.

 Our government must be more stringent in implementing the law which states manual scavenging as illegal.

 Private sanitation companies are hiring persons especially to enter sewer holes, such activities must be monitored by district nodal agencies.

Schools and colleges by imparting awareness to students must thrive to ‘de-caste’ this profession from a particular community.

Government should invest in technology to replace manual scavenging. Young minds from premier institution such as IITs should be directed to innovate robots to clean sewer holes in India.

Individuals can spread awareness on their own and make such people aware of the existing law and make sure government policies like NSKFDC reach the targeted group.

 Youngsters in particular should learn the root cause of this issue and act in such a manner that manual scavenging in completely eradicated not only from India but also over other such places in the world.

 Any queries regarding the article contact

 R. Mridhu Bhashini

 Mail: aesthetesphotography@gmail.com

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/aesthetes_photography/

Note: (Each highlighted word in the article pertains to a web link from which the data is collected from , for further details double click the highlighted word).


-

Comments

Anuj said…
Article is very gud!

manual scavenging can be eradicated only when people are totally aware of the history of caste in India. The views expressed are really good...
December 16, 2019 at 7:07 PM
Anonymous said…
good article

At least at present protective gears must be given to must be provided to sanitation workers. At the place of site the government must ensure first aid to avoid any deaths.

utmost this practice must be completely vanished from earth. We must be ashamed to use humans do such job in this 21st century too.......

December 16, 2019 at 7:11 PM
Mohammed Ismail said…
A well written article, this practice of manual scavenging exits since many centuries in India. Government is taking steps but it should increase its pace.
Such practice degrade the whole of humanity.

nice work Mridhu bhashin and Young India

very rare such articles are publicised
December 16, 2019 at 7:22 PM
Anagha said…
An article on much needed topic of discussion.
Nicely phrased and legible to all audiences.
December 16, 2019 at 8:53 PM
anitha said…
Well written with great social responsibility. KUDOS dear. Create more awareness through effective expressions.
December 18, 2019 at 6:41 PM
Mahendiran said…
Neat ..and clean..!!
Message conved so well..
Well done...!
December 18, 2019 at 10:27 PM
Post a Comment

Other blog Posts

“Imaginable Immortality”

Image
Immortality described as unending existence which has been proclaimed to be attained through mentally, spiritually or physically. Though the belief system of immortality has been quite common and familiar across the horizontal and vertical dimension of geographical territory and human historical timescale, there is no proof or material evidence available yet. Despite these counter arguments prevailing in the rational society, I would try my level best to convince my fellow readers about “Imaginable (Possible) Immortality” in the real world through this article.  Immortality as described above may sound more of spiritual, but in reality immortality as an end can be reached through the means, of spiritual as well as scientific. Personally, I would prefer to approach eternal through spiritual means but due to societal pressure where spirituality is attached to religion and also described as “Non-Sense”, I better start with science. YES, I BECOME RATIONAL NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Read more

Good sleep for a fine day.

Image
‘Sleep is the best form of meditation’, but this is not realized by many of us. Some are night-loving and also seem proud to say that ‘I’m a night owl’. Indeed it is unusual. If there is any importance to sleep in our life then half of our psychological problems and trauma, what we are undergoing can be reduced. What is sleep? When we go with the definition, sleep is nothing but the state of mind and body in which the nervous system is inactive, the eyes are closed, our muscles are relaxed and our consciousness practically suspended. To be simple sleep is a condition in which our soul, mind and body need temporary rest. Insomnia The person who is regularly unable to sleep is called as an insomniac . The condition of insomnia is prevalent mostly in the age group of twenty and thirty for the reasons which could be prevented. Insomnia which occurs in older age groups are more fatal and need an expert to heal. In the first case, people tend to lose their sleep be
Read more

The Novel C O R O N A

Image
  -  ZAKIR HUSSAIN.P "As humans, we like to think we're in charge of our corner of the universe.   But now and then a microscopic entity reminds us that we are not."              -Neil DeGrasse Tyson A novel virus refers to a virus not seen before. It can be a virus that is isolated from its natural reservoir or isolated as the result of spread to an animal or human host where the virus had not been identified before. Due to such characters, the Coronavirus causing COVID-19 disease has made the entire human population vulnerable. Governments across the world have blocked their entire borders and have set up quarantine facilities. The novel coronavirus on the date has caused more than 15,000 deaths all over the world. There is also a steady increase in positive cases each day. The elderly, children and poor are more prone to the virus than anybody else. India is no exception and the country has already recorded more than 500 positive cases so far wi
Read more

The Mystery of Pride

Image
Human beings are amazing creatures on earth, because of the influential nature that humans posses, we tend to impact and bring change in nature. The change sometimes is positive or negative. Billions now are threatened from a deadly disease called COVID 19 caused by a virus named ‘Corona’ and still we could control the situation following various ways like social distancing, lockdown, wearing mask etc. We feel proud of ourselves for the scientific development the human has attained so far and soon hope science to produce a vaccine for this deadly disease. We are proud of this nature of humans and with pride , we hope for the best in the coming months. What is pride? According to the Oxford dictionary, “Pride a feeling of pleasure or satisfaction that you get when you or people who are connected with you have done something well or own something that other people admire”. Overall what pride gives us is a feeling of pleasure. Pride is also a belief that one is superior to
Read more

THE "ARRIBADA"

Image
image credit @Ashika One can never imagine the secrets hidden by nature underwater. Deep-sea divers, marine experts are few among the luckiest to unravel the ascetic value of the oceans to us. The oceans of the world sustain millions of species from tiny algae to the largest mammal ‘the blue whale’. One such species which is found in the tropical regions of the oceans has its presence over 100 million years! Believed to live more than fifty years, it swims across the ocean thousands of miles with its four flipper legs and bears a protective shield (top shell) called carapace all along in its entire journey. They have olive coloured body parts and thus named as ‘The Olive Ridley’ turtles. Olive Ridley turtles are the second smallest next to the Kemp Ridley’s and the most abundant of all sea turtles found in the world. The females are larger than males. They prey on jellyfish, crustaceans and snails. The olive ridley is listed as vulnerable under the International Union for C
Read more

The happiness when you own a thing !

Image
image credit  Mridhu.B.R We at present are living in a globalized world, just call it a global village. Here our tastes and preferences are not ours anymore, it is controlled by external factors that surround us. We are influenced in a wider range by various entities which choose things for us and we get very little chance to choose the right product based on our needs. Consider a girl who plans to buy a lipstick (be it any other cosmetic products that she uses). Why does she need it?  she may have various reasons to buy a lipstick like a perception that she might look good in it, want it since most woman use lipsticks, saw that in an advertisement so she responds to get it, saw a movie and was inspired from her favourite actress who looks great on lipstick so decides to get one for her, or maybe she thinks that the society has fixed using lipstick as an ideal yardstick of looking beautiful. The above are the possibilities that she would buy the lipstick. Now the case is
Read more

My Suicidal Note

Image
Hi to all, I refer myself as Prince lonely toad . My father used to call me Mr.Toad and my mother named me as Little prince frogger. We are a wanderer and I belong to a large family with 12 siblings. I am the youngest kiddo of all. My family often worries about my future because of my physical dissimilarities with other members. Yes, I am a differently-abled spirit with one functional leg and an eye. I never thought that life would be so difficult until that day. The day and the events pushed me to take this extreme step. Now, I am giving up my hope of living. Yes, this is my suicide note and I am about to quit. In general suicide note will punish the accused listed in it, but like a frog (As a relief measure to all my fellow readers, I am just a frog but not a human being), I am so powerless to punish those accused. Besides these all, I wrote this letter to feel u all guilt and make my death reasonable to all vulnerable powerless section. Causes of death and accused are listed in t
Read more

An odd day in the evens

Image
It was a day of strike in Kerala, yeah it happens often here. It was a one day strike by some political party. So I planned to ride along with my friend. We started early around four in the morning so that we can cross the Kerala border by six before the strike starts. And yes we did it. It was a ride from Perinthalmanna in Malappuram district of Kerala to the queen of hills 'Ooty' in The Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu. We reached Gudallur around seven. Our first halt was the Eucalyptus forests in the Gudallur to Ooty main road. All of a sudden you enter into the Eucalypts forest. The aroma of Eucalyptus and those tall red trees all around make you feel like you are somewhere in dreamland. This place is where you begin sensing the Nilgiris as you start heading to Ooty. It was early in the morning with no traffic on the road and the scarce mist all around made us stop there for a while enjoying the breeze which carries the fragrance of Eucalyptus. Later we moved ahead to
Read more

Shades of being Chapter 3

Image
The fault in our Stars (2014) film is memorable for many reasons. But in a scene when Augustus says that he fears about Oblivion, I felt myself in his place. As far as I can remember I am a dreamer of legacies. I always wanted to have an indelible print of my own being in this universe, eternally. When we grow, we accumulate the consciousness from winnings and losses and successes and failures. That consciousness will take us from the dreams into a situation of reality. The successes make us excited to achieve the legacies of own where generations are going to remember us, celebrate us. Then the fear of Oblivion comes from every failure we face in our ambitious path. I have my fair share of both sides of the spectrum. I had to choose a path which will, in turn, give me an eternal place in this overcrowded multi-complex world. The choices were business, community service or even becoming a celebrity of a kind. I have tried all of them. When you are in a full of energy witho
Read more