Why is it so difficult to free India of manual scavenging?
Guest post by BEZWADA WILSON
Safai karamcharis from across India declared their liberation at a
function in Delhi on 20 December
Over the years, there have been many changes in the Safai Karamchari
Andolan movement. The biggest change we have seen has been in the
safai karamchari community's outlook. There was a time when safai
karamcharis were ashamed to admit they did manual scavenging. It was
not uncommon for even family members to be unaware that someone was
involved in the practice of manual scavenging.
But the community started discussing the issue threadbare and the
silence over manual scavenging was broken. They came together and
organised themselves on a national platform with the single focus of
eradicating manual scavenging. As the state and the judiciary began
hearing our voices, we began to break the chains of caste and
patriarchy.
We gathered the courage to burn the baskets we once used to collect
human excreta in. We began knocking the doors of the district
magistrates to implement the 1993 Act of Parliament that outlawed
manual scavenging. Ideally the DM should have been approaching the
safai karamcharis and helping them leave the practice. It's an irony
that we have had to got to the DMs to make them aware of the Act they
should have been making us aware of! In doing so, however, we have
been strengthening the functioning of the Indian democracy. In the
twenty first century, safai karamcharis are making stronger the
pillars of Indian democracy!
Over the past few months, 1,260 enumerators, who are from within the
safai karamchari community, have conducted a massive survey
documenting the prevalence of manual scavenging. The community, in
many places, has decided to leave the practice on its own. People are
still coming out and acknowledging that they are into the work and
resolving, trying and managing to leave it.
The changes that have taken place in the community have been reflected
at the legislative and judicial levels. Thanks to the work of many
intellectuals and activists, the centenary year celebrations of
Babasaheb Ambedkar in 1991 resulted in a slew of measures for Dalits.
The Eradication of Manual Scavenging & Dry Latrine (Abolition) Act
came into force in 1993. But the aim of the Act has not been fulfilled
even today. On 20 December 2003, exactly seven years ago, the Safai
Karamchari Andolan and 13 others filed a petition in the Supreme Court
to make the state and central government and their bodies implement
the Act.
To begin with, the state governments wouldn't submit the affidavits
the Supreme Court asked them to. Even after the Supreme Courts
reprimands, sevem principal secretaries had to be summoned to the
court for them to take cognisance of the case! In the affidavits
submitted, all of them denied that manual scavenging was prevalent
under their jurisdiction.
So the onus of proving that it existed fell upon us, the victims,
victimizing us further. We started collecting data along with
photographic and video evidence in several states. As a result of such
evidence we would submit in Supreme Court, the states would simply go
and demolish those dry latrines, and reported back to the court that
these didn't exist! This became a strategy for us: we started
collecting more material and submitting it.
In seven years the case has seen eight judges, including two chief
justices, preside over the hearings. The process has been slow and
cumbersome. The last hearing was in November when the court mulled
over the issue of whether it can direct state governments who had not
notified the Act to do so. The next hearing is on January 11.
We have used two orders passed by the SC in 2008 to expedite the
process. We took the orders around to district magistrates and ask
them to implement those orders and demolish dry latrines in their
districts.
In 2005, we went around states demolishing dry latrines. We would be
prevented from doing so, in response to which we said that when the
government denies the existence of these dry latrines how could we be
demolishing them? This way we forced governments to act. The most
notable case was that of a dry latrine inside the Nizamabad court
complex in Hyderabad!
Just to demolish a dry latrine and liberate a safai karamchari, why
should it need an order from the highest court of the land? Can't the
government simply implement an Act it has itself passed? Why should
social change need the intervention of the Supreme Court?
There have been many schemes and programmes for the rehabilitation of
safai karamcharis and many high officials, often prime ministers, have
spoken out promising to make India free of manual scavenging. Why
hasn't that happened?
*
The changes may be slow, but they are taking place. These are not just
at the level of the community and the state, but also the civil
society and the media. Responses to manual scavenging from civil
society and the media, until some years ago, used to express sympathy
but not support or work towards eradication of manual scavenging.
Earlier they would say, 'They don't have the skills for alternative
work', 'They should be given better equipment', and so on. Now, many
have joined the SKA movement, endorsing our stand that human beings
should not be lifting the excreta of other human beings. That they
should come out of this practice into a world of dignity and equality.
Over the years, there have been efforts by many people at many levels,
but the biggest effort has to be from us. It is difficult, but most
important that we take the initiative in our own hands, leave the work
and free India of the scourge of manual scavenging.
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