Our country is a land of paradoxes. We are peace-loving, but we have a long history of wars behind us. We put women on the pedestal as goddesses, but do not hesitate to rape them. We are the second most unequal country in terms of income, but rank 132 in our commitment to reduce inequality!
While the concern for cleanliness has been evident through the Total Sanitation Campaign, Community-Led Total Sanitation to Clean India Mission, with emphasis on coverage, the worker provided the services to ensure coverage has remained absent- even in the global agenda of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
While environment and its conservation have caught everyone’s attention, the concern for sewerage and allied service providers is absent. While there is an evident concern for the users of sewerage and allied work by way of provisioning of and access to toilets, reduction in open defecation, and other programmes such as provisioning of safe drinking water and clean drains; the plight of these people has not drawn much attention from the required sectors.
Very cleverly, the self-proclaimed wise men have also reserved specific occupations for specific groups, back in ancient days, with the claim to maintain the ordained social structure! This has been consciously nurtured and protected over time and has metamorphosed terrifically since then. In this graded structure, the worst vulnerabilities are suffered by those who are traditionally made responsible to do the cleaning jobs – and are paradoxically called ‘scavengers’. In addition to facing public apathy, sanitation workers are at risk of diseases such as dysentery, malaria, typhoid, skin infections, tuberculosis and exposure to toxic gases in sewers.
It took the country more than half a century after independence to pass the Manual Scavenging Act in 2013, in spite of the pathetic conditions of scavengers becoming evident soon after the independence by the Barve Committee report in 1949. In 1957, the Central Advisory Board for Harijan Welfare set up ‘Scavenging Conditions Inquiry Committee’ headed by Prof NR Malkani. The committee submitted its report in 1960 and reported that the persons from specific communities were engaged as sweepers and scavengers. The Malkani Committee recommended that human dignity of these communities be restored by replacing dry latrines; and providing a conducive environment for alternative employment.
A task force was set up after nearly 30 years in 1989 to address the recommendations, pointing blatantly towards the apathy of the caste-ridden government functionaries. An unwritten rule of assigning cleaning jobs to specific caste groups has been internalised. The recommendation of the Malkani Committee for rehabilitation materialised in the form of Self Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers (SRMS) introduced by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment as late as 2007. Its implementation began in November 2013. The Prohibition of Employment of Manual Scavengers and Rehabilitation Act 2013, provides for one-time cash assistance of INR 40000.
I recently conducted a study on the sanitation workers – a sanitised term for the same engagement, and it reflects that only two out of more than 250 persons engaged in cleaning jobs in Delhi did not belong to Dalit communities. Most of them are engaged by urban local bodies. They collect, transport and dispose of waste including human excreta; work in wastewater and sewer treatment plants. They engage in domestic garbage collection, cleaning of drains, sewer, roads and public spaces, personal/public toilets, and handle biomedical waste. They are mostly employed as daily wage contractual worker without any claim to compensation in case of any accident during their work. Many of them clean the sewers.
Only about 1.1% received any ‘training’, and 51% received boots and uniform and only 16% used the boots because of poor fitting. Nearly 46% know about the social benefit schemes meant for them and their family, and only 16 per cent know about the legal benefits. Despite many schemes, only 7% had used any benefits for educational purposes. None of the workers knew about rehabilitation schemes.
At this point in time, when the country is consciously making efforts towards cleanliness, through the Swachch Bharat Abhiyan, it is wretchedly shameful to have the ‘Safai Karamcharis’ continue in their woeful state. The nation has not been able to rid itself of considering ‘cleaning’ as polluting because of caste-based hierarchy entrenched in the mindsets of Indians.
The West may be generating more garbage than us but they treat their cleaners with dignity. Their cleaning brigade does not need to be freed from the dehumanising, obnoxious, abhorrent and disgusting practice of caste-based discrimination. They are considered as human as those in other professions and therefore the state also cares to provide them with safety equipment. By any standard of measurement, there are more accidents and deaths which have occurred in India among ‘Safai Karamcharis’ while at work than anywhere else in the world.
Remunerations of these workers are meagre and work guaranteed is nil. They are often employed for less than eight hours and paid accordingly, anything between Rs 300-1500 per month.
In most developed nations, workers are protected in bunny suits to avoid contact with contaminated water and sport a respiratory apparatus; sewers are well-lit, mechanically aerated with huge fans and therefore are not so oxygen deficient. In Hong Kong, a sewer worker, after adequate training, needs at least 15 licenses and permits to enter a manhole. The entry-level salary of a sanitation worker in New York is $30,000 per year. In the sixth year, he could earn about $67,141.
In India, one’s license to become a sewer worker is the all-pervasive caste identity! In India, only the permanent workers, a vanishing tribe, wear a “safety belt” which helps pull them out when they faint or die inside the sewer. Unfortunately, the one tied around Anil, a housekeeping staff, who was forced to enter the sewer pit in Dadri for cleaning it, on September 16, 2018, snapped! And he fell to death- in the grime and human excreta.
About a week earlier, on September 9, five young men, all aged between 17 and 23 years, died for the same reason in Delhi’s Motinagar area. In Delhi alone, more than 60 deaths occurred during between January 2017 and July 2017 and continued unabated during 2018 too.
It is evident from the Safai Karamchari Andolan data – the only source of empirical evidence in the absence of any government data. Only seven out of 60 deceased people have received any compensation. It is estimated that at least 22,327 Dalits die doing sanitation work every year across the country. This fatality is higher than any other cause of death.
The cleaning operations are outsourced to sanitation firms who hire the workers for ‘work’, which is almost always not identified as sewer cleaning. More than 90% of these workers are not only poor but also belong to Dalit communities with no bargaining power and no choice of occupation. They often work after midnight because while people are asleep, the flow in the sewers is lesser, and their work does not disturb road users. While others do not even notice their lives or deaths, they are ‘concerned’ about disturbing others!
The Census 2011 data shows that about eight lakh people are engaged in clearing night soil by hand. It cannot be more shameful for the governments.
First and foremost, the 2013 Act needs to expand the ambit of manual scavenging to include workers who clean the sewers, septic tanks, drains where human excreta is washed.
Secondly, provide a rehabilitation programme for scavengers and their immediate family members. The purview of the programme could include training in other professions and technical education. Arm the sanitation workers with state of the art technology tools. Developed nations have tools and equipment which protect sanitation workers from direct exposure to sewage water and waste.
Also, extend the benefit of health schemes to scavengers and their family members with provisions of free health check-up on regular basis.
Finally, provide a financial safety net by extending the subsidised loan for starting a new venture. Fulfilling the recommendations of various committees with sincere commitment is needed urgently for an inclusive just society.
Dr B.R. Ambedkar remarked: “… in India a man is not a scavenger because of his work. He is a scavenger because of his birth irrespective of the question whether he does scavenging or not.” These deaths of sewer workers – are a grim reminder of unsafe working conditions for people keeping India’s sewer lines and tanks clean, often with their bare hands. We owe to them not only our healthy environment but also the deluge free urban spaces post monsoons. Their contribution in cleaning the sewers including rainwater drain is important in containing the waterlogging in the cities and towns. Therefore, their training and conducive remunerations ensuring the dignity of work are inevitable. We need to resolve to give them their due respect and dignity as enshrined in the Constitution. Else, we will fail our Father of the Nation who urged us to clean our own toilets. Let us usher in the ‘Naya Bharat’ in this unique way of social inclusion.