Livelihood mission is what we require
MAGSAYSAY AWARD WINNER ON MISSION TO CHANGE THE LIVES OF WOMEN WORKING AS MANUAL SCAVENGERS
H uman rights activist Bezwada Wilson, 50, recently won the 2016 Ramon Magsaysay Award — Asia’s highest honour.
Born into a Dalit (low caste) family involved in manual scavenging in Karnataka, Wilson has spent the last three decades fighting against the practice. The award citation aptly describes his work stating that in electing Wilson to receive the award, the board of trustees “recognises his moral energy and prodigious skill in leading a grassroots movement to eradicate the degrading servitude of manual scavenging in India, reclaiming for the dalits the human dignity that is their natural birthright.”
He also changed the lives of thousands of scavengers. Wilson founded the Safai Karamchari Andolan (SKA), an organisation that began waging a war against the dehumanising practice. He travelled across the country in his fight against the social evil. In an exclusive interview with
Gulf News at his office in East Patel Nagar, New Delhi, Wilson recalls, “I was a very sensitive child, so my parents, who were over-protective about me, dispatched me to a hostel for studies. Since I had grown up in a gold mining area, I was made to believe that mining was how they earned a living and was unaware of their actual profession. It was at the age of 18, I first witnessed, a man cleaning a dry toilet. It shocked me. But I was all the more appalled to find that even my parents and elder brother were doing the same work, as we belong to a lower caste and are also referred to as ‘untouchables’”.
Even though most Indian homes have now been replaced the old system with water systems, in certain states like Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bihar, the old practice still persists.
The Ramon Magsaysay Award and the recognition it has got Wilson, has helped the cause he is fighting. The crusader, who in the past refused to accept the many awards bestowed on him, accepted the Magsaysay Award, as “it will give our community more strength to fight against the system. I have dedicated this award to the thousands of women, who successfully shunned the inhuman practice of manual scavenging without support from anyone.”
Tough going
However, the initial years were extremely difficult for Wilson, because convincing even his own community people was a huge challenge. People had been working as manual scavengers for generations and were captives of their work and thoughts.
“Successive governments have kept the dalits away from any kind of development. Even though there has been a rehabilitation scheme since 1993, not a single dalit has been rehabilitated under the scheme. We expect the government to bring in a social change and vote for politicians so that they can protect the rights of the marginalised. But there is no comprehensive action plan that is in our interest. The government has launched Swachh Bharat Mission, but ‘livelihood mission’ is what we actually require.”
Under the Swachh Bharat Mission the government has aimed to construct over 100 million toilets by 2019. But Wilson said, “That’s exactly where the catch is. Swachh Bharat Mission aims to build toilets, but without bothering whether people are actually using them and, more importantly, whether there is a provision of water in toilets. The mission does not talk about eradication of manual scavenging, so one can make out who finally will be cleaning these toilets — the scavengers alone!”
Claiming that the government had erred badly, he added, ”It would have made sense if Prime Minister Narendra Modi had invested money on modernising the whole sanitation and drainage system to clean septic tanks and sewer lines with minimum human intervention. This would have ended manual scavenging. You cannot have smart cities without smart sanitation.”
The astounding figures of manual scavengers in India prove his point as over 1.6 million dalits still work as scavengers. Ironically, 98 per cent of them are women. Since within the caste too there is patriarchy, Wilson pointed, “On the one hand, we have to fight patriarchy, on the other, we try educating women to fight the system. Men do this job only where they are able to make money out of it, like in the Indian Railways, which is the biggest violator. But it refuses to acknowledge it.”
Future plans
Speaking about his future line of action, he said, “In 1993, the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act was passed. As a result of sustained activism by us, in 2013, the government amended the Act to cover those cleaning septic tanks, sewers, open drains and railway tracks. We are creating a situation where the government agencies are pressurised and they are left with no option other than liberating dalits of this inhuman practice.”
It was at the age of 18, I first witnessed, a man cleaning a dry toilet... But I was more appalled to find that even my parents and elder brother were doing the same work.” Bezwada Wilson | Social activist