A national shame
S. VISWANATHAN
INDIA STINKING — Manual Scavengers in Andhra Pradesh and Their Work: Gita Ramaswamy; Navayana Publishing, 54, I Floor, Savari Rayalu Street, Pondicherry-605008. 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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