Manual scavenging is worse than slavery, says crusader
Eradicating manual scavenging should be India’s top priority as the castebased practice is worse than slavery and will destroy BR Ambedkar’s dream of an equal society, Magsaysay award winner Bezwada Wilson said on Wednesday.
Speaking to HT from the west Delhi offices of his Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA), he condemned the so-called growing fundamentalism and said the recent thrashing of Dalit youth in Gujarat proved these “antidemocratic” powers thought they were the law.
“People want to tell Dalits what to eat and wear but Dalits have started to resist. Dominant castes are violating the law and it is upto the government to uphold democracy,” he said.
The 50-year-old was awarded the Magsaysay for his pioneering organisation founded in 1993 that works to eradicate the practice of people lifting and cleaning human excreta by hand.
“Look at Swachh Bharat. PM Narendra Modi did cleaning for 2 minutes but who will clear the toilets afterwards? It will be Dalits,” he said.
“Efforts to address caste and patriarchy are almost absent from Swachh Bharat. By constructing crores of toilets, you’re inviting more sewage and septic tank deaths.”
Manual scavenging is banned in India but the rule is not stringently enforced. Wilson said an estimated 200,000 manual scavengers work in the country at present, not counting sewer cleaners and safai karmacharis.
“The Railways runs bullet trains but don’t eradicate scavenging. Where’s the technology for those who want to end lifting shit,” he asked.
Born in Karnataka to a Dalit family, Wilson said he said he slowly understood he was from a family of manual scavengers after his dominant caste classmates heaped on humiliation.
“I felt like my freedom was denied. I couldn’t compromise. It was worse than slavery,” he said.
One of his biggest challenges was asking women with no other mode of income to quit scavenging. “This was the cruelty of scavenging. If you fought the system, you were left with no income.”
Wilson instead narrated his own humiliation and others related to his story.
He advocated for a change in people’s mindsets. “People call me Bhangi even now. We don’t find apartments to house our offices. Our way of thinking needs to change.”