Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers

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Sarita Brara*

As a kid whenever  Dolly woke up, she would find  that  her mother had already left for work . Where did her mother go even before the break of  dawn , dolly wondered. Like  many  other girls  in Tonk  in Rajasthan that belonged to the family of night soil carriers, Dolly  did not  go to school.  So she  would pester her mother to take her along. Her mother would refuse saying it  was not a good work. But, when Dolly turned 12 her Grandmother insisted that it was time Dolly started working.   Though reluctant, her mother eventually agreed. Dolly was excited that she would be  helping her mother earn  some extra bucks. The next day Dolly along with her mother left home when it was still dark. Where was her mother taking her? They entered a house  from where  a nauseating foul smell came and a sea of fleas hovered over human excreta. At first she could not understand why her mother came there. But when  she saw her mother collect the excreta  in a  vessel  and  then  carry it  on her head to be thrown at  another place, Dolly just stood  there, dumbfounded.  Covering her face with her hands  to avoid  breathing in the  foul smell, she even felt like vomiting. She could not believe that this is what  her mother did to earn a  paltry  sum of money. Soon it dawned on her that this is what  she too was destined to do  for she belonged  to the family  of night soil carriers!

 

Till just three years back  Dolly carried human excreta on her head  and cleaned the night soil.  But thanks to an NGO  things changed. Today she  lives the life of dignity  and is  giving training in tailoring and other vocations to the daughters of some of the very households, she cleaned the night soil for and who treated her as an untouchable. The family invites her to their place often and their daughter has become her friend.

Santosh  in  Pikachetted  village  in Dharamshala tehsil in Kangra was just  about five year old  when she  started going with her  parents  to clean night soil.  Although her parents had admitted her in a school, she did this work to help her parents.  But  later on under a Government scheme, she got training  as tailor  and also earned a stipend. She   took a loan  of  Rs.20,000,  half of which was given as a  subsidy and  started  a training  centre. Today  she is the President of the Mahila Mandal  which is  working for  the  families  and dependents of night soil carrier. Santosh says that  they have been able to train over 160 such women in the area in stitching, tailoring ,  embroidery, knitting, weaving and pottery.

There are many success stories like that of Dolly and  Santosh but even today  the practice of  manual cleaning of  human excreta continues.  This is despite  the ban on  employment of manual scavengers  and construction of dry latrines  way back  in 1993.

Although the government  plans to conduct a fresh  survey, there are  an estimated  over one lakh persons still  engaged in this  inhuman practice. The Prime Minister  while addressing the  state ministers  of  welfare  and social justice  in June this year  set the dead line  for ending  this inhuman practice  within  six months.  He said that  one of the darkest blots on our development process is the fact that even after 64 years of independence, we still have the heinous practice of manual scavenging.  Dr Manmohan Singh  asked the Ministers to take a  pledge to eliminate this scourge from every corner of the  country in the next six months.

While  it is for the State Governments to ensure  this is done  within the time frame  set by the Prime Minister, the Centre  is  spending crores  of rupees  every year to rehabilitate  manual scavengers  and their dependents  through various schemes.

A massive self-employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers (SRMS) was launched in January in  2007 to provide financial support to them  and their dependents for their rehabilitation in alternative occupations. The scheme provides training in various skills  for a period up to one year, with payment of stipend  at the rate of  Rs.1,000  per month.

 

Loan at concessional rate of interest for self employment projects costing upto  Rs. 5 lakh. For  projects up to Rs.25000  the rate of interest  is four per cent per annum  for  women beneficiaries and  5 per cent for  men .

Capital subsidy at the rate 50 per cent of the project cost, for projects up to Rs.25,000, and at the rate of 25 percent for projects above Rs. 25,000, with a minimum of  Rs.12,500 and maximum of Rs.20,000.

Then there is another scheme  called Mahila Adhikarita Yojana (MAY)- Loan  is provided under this scheme  to Women Safai Karamcharis andScavenger women and their dependent daughters upto Rs. 50,000 – per beneficiary.

Term loans are provided  for  Schemes and  Projects upto  Rs. 1.00 Lakh. Educational loans up to Rs. 10 lakh for four years  are also provided  for  diploma and degrees  after twelfth  at the interest rate three and a half per cent for girls and 4 per cent for boys.

 

But  to start with  it was  the founder of Sulabh International  Dr Bindeshwar Pathak  who  not only brought the issue to the fore  almost forty years back but  his NGO has been working  unrelentlessly to improve the social status of  manual scavengers in India. His mission is not limited to   providing vocational  training  or education  which of course is  of prime importance  but to   socially upgrade them. Santosh  says that   though   today she  along with many others have been liberated from the obnoxious  practice of  manually  handling human excreta, the prejudices remain. She and her community  still face discrimination  and not treated  as part of the  main stream society. Dr Pathak  knew that  liberation from manual scavenging, training and education was not enough   and their children will have to  have upgraded status in society, to be at  par with the so-called upper caste people.  So  his  NGO started   a social up gradation campaign. Under this, a family with high status in society would “socially adopt” a scavenger family and treat them like family members. The association with these high-status people would help raise the status of the scavengers. So far, 5,000 scavenger families have been “adopted” by families with high status including those of  judges, advocates, journalists, politians and planners.

The issue does not end  with   families  engaged  in  handling human excreta .It is also the issue  of  discrimination  against  a   community.  Even today in  many villages  separate   hamlets   defined on the basis of  caste  exist, though  not in the scale and degree it used to be.  Discrimination on the basis of caste has to end for  every one to live life with dignity.

*Freelance  Journalist

 

Disclaimer: The views expressed by the author in this feature are entirely her own and do not necessarily reflect the views of INVC

 

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