{"id":1530,"date":"2018-03-07T20:22:46","date_gmt":"2018-03-07T20:22:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/?p=1530"},"modified":"2018-03-07T20:22:46","modified_gmt":"2018-03-07T20:22:46","slug":"im-born-to-do-this-condemned-by-caste-indias-sewer-cleaners-risk-death-daily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/2018\/03\/07\/im-born-to-do-this-condemned-by-caste-indias-sewer-cleaners-risk-death-daily\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I’m born to do this’: Condemned by caste, India’s sewer cleaners risk death daily"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Guardian<\/p>\n

Just before 7am one morning in Mumbai, three men clearing a sewer pipe were\u00a0overcome by deadly fumes<\/a>\u00a0and collapsed. Their deaths sparked a cat-and-mouse pursuit across India.<\/p>\n

Records show the bodies of the trio were rushed to an embalmer, where a certificate was issued declaring them safe for flying. Permissions were sought in their home state of Orissa. Within hours, a plane had taken off from Mumbai, bearing their remains, bound for the east Indian state.<\/p>\n

In a small office in central Delhi, a group of activists had been quietly tracking the bodies. One of their agents had watched the coffins being loaded onto the plane. An urgent message was sent to a member of their network in Orissa: get to the airport. Find those men.<\/p>\n

Chasing the remains of sewer cleaners across the country, and gathering post-mortem evidence to force their employers to pay compensation, has become regular work for the volunteers of the Safai Karmachari Andolan, or Sanitation Workers Movement.<\/p>\n

\u2018Worse than slavery\u2019<\/h2>\n

For the past three years, the organisation has been recording every sewer death they can, stretching back three decades, to build a database many Indian lawmakers would prefer not exist.<\/p>\n

They are revealing the toll of what Indians call \u201cmanual scavenging\u201d, one of deadliest occupations in the world, and starkest examples of the continuing blight of caste on millions of lives.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of thousands of Indians are still thought to make their living as scavengers, emptying dry toilets by hand, or cleaning septic tanks and sewers without protection.<\/p>\n

They belong overwhelmingly to a single community: the Valmiki caste, regarded as the very bottom of the intricate system that still governs who most Indians marry, what they eat \u2013 and who unclogs their sewers.<\/p>\n

This past year,\u00a0more than 300 people<\/a>\u00a0are estimated to have died doing the work, including\u00a0seven in the first seven days<\/a>\u00a0of 2018. \u201cThis is the most hazardous job,\u201d says Bezwada Wilson, the leader of Safai Karmachari Andolan, whose own parents were manual scavengers. \u201cIt is the most undignified job, an inhuman, barbaric practice. It is worse than slavery.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2018I am born to do this\u2019<\/h2>\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The sun has barely risen in Fatehpur Sikri, a small city south of Delhi, when the veiled women gather carrying battered baskets and brooms. Manual scavenging in 2018 takes two forms, split along gender lines. Men clean sewers; women go house-to-house clearing waste from deep holes used as toilets.<\/p>\n

Khushba approaches the first of the 40-odd house she services with practised ease. \u201cGet away, this is not clean,\u201d she cautions, mouth and nose covered tightly by her scarf, as she douses the hole with fly ash and scoops its contents into her basket.<\/p>\n

She first learned she would become a scavenger six months after her marriage at age 17. \u201cI felt sad in the beginning,\u201d she said. \u201cBut there was poverty and we had to fill the stomachs of our family. So there was no other option for me \u2013 I covered my nose and started doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caste is governed by an obsession with purity. Traditionally, food or water touched by Dalits is considered to be spoiled; in extreme cases, even their shadows were regarded as polluting. This apartheid persists, even in Indian cities, severely limiting the work available to women such as Ladja, another manual scavenger.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuppose I have money and open a shop,\u201d she says, her face covered by a sheer veil. \u201cNon-Valmiki people won\u2019t buy from me. Suppose I want to be a cook. Nobody will let me enter their kitchen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Five hours\u2019 drive from Fatehpur Sikri are the gleaming tower blocks of Gurgaon, a satellite city south of Delhi, home to multinationals, breweries and other badges of modern\u00a0India<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Deepak Valmiki moved to the city 10 years ago looking for work. He knew that wherever he applied, there would be only one job available. \u201cI am a cleaner,\u201d he says, leaning on his motorcycle. \u201cI am born to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

As India has modernised, so too has caste discrimination. Deepak owns a smartphone and wears aviator sunglasses. But at least twice a month, he is forced to enter the septic tank at the automotive factory where he works to clean it without protection.<\/p>\n

In September, three of his colleagues\u00a0died at the bottom<\/a>\u00a0of a company tank. \u201cIt was a total chemical smell,\u201d says Binesh, the only survivor. He entered the tank first and collapsed in seconds. The other three piled in after him, managing to secure a rope around his waist before they too succumbed. He was the only one pulled out alive.<\/p>\n

Incidents such as these spark calls for compensation, but few Valmikis seriously question why they do this work, says Wilson. Part of what makes caste so stubborn is its divine sanction in the Hindu tradition. \u201cIt has been given legitimacy by the religion,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Deepak thinks hard when asked if he should find another job. \u201cI\u2019m not very sure I could,\u201d he finally says. \u201cThe people who are supposed to do a job should do that job only. I take it as my responsibility. I clean my country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indian governments have passed several pieces of legislation outlawing manual scavenging, the first in 1955. But the gap between Indian law and what prevails on the ground is often vast. Nobody has ever been convicted for using scavenger labour.<\/p>\n

India\u2019s rail ministry is\u00a0though<\/a>t to be the country\u2019s largest employer of manual scavengers<\/a>, employing thousands of Valmikis to clear excrement and rubbish flushed from trains. Most are informally hired at arm\u2019s length by contractors. \u201cRecruiters, contractors, they know whom to ask,\u201d says Ashif Shaikh, a human rights activist. \u201cThey will go to where the Valmikis stay and ask them to clean the tracks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through their investigations, the team at the Safai Karmachari Andolan have documented more than 1,500 scavenger deaths since 1993. \u201cAnd that\u2019s a low estimate,\u201d Wilson adds. \u201cWe think each year it is not less than 500.\u201d<\/p>\n

A flagship promise by the Narendra Modi government to build toilets for every Indian offers hope for liberating some scavengers. Robotic technology is\u00a0also being trialled<\/a>\u00a0in Kerala state to automate the work. But activists say a lasting solution will come in the form of women such as Ladkunwar.<\/p>\n

Four years ago, she too wielded a basket and broom to clean latrines in Rasulpur, her village near Agra. Until one morning, when she felt overcome by the truth of her work. \u201cI was carrying someone else\u2019s faeces on my head,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sat down with many sisters and started encouraging them that we had to leave this job.\u201d<\/p>\n

One-by-one, Valmiki women in Rasulpur began to leave the profession. It took four years to eradicate it completely. Many still struggle to make an alternative living. \u201cThere are lots of jobs we are not allowed to do. There is still a taint,\u201d Ladkunwar says.<\/p>\n

But there is also something new in the eyes of the other villagers. \u201cRespect,\u201d she says. \u201cNow if someone forces me to clean their toilet, I will lift up my slipper and hit them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Guardian Just before 7am one morning in Mumbai, three men clearing a sewer pipe were\u00a0overcome by deadly fumes\u00a0and collapsed. Their deaths sparked a cat-and-mouse pursuit across India. Records show the bodies of the trio were rushed to an embalmer, where a certificate was issued declaring them safe for flying. Permissions were sought in their home state of Orissa. Within… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1530"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1531,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1530\/revisions\/1531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}