Seeking an end to a degrading occupation - One man's campaign to help manual scavengers to a better life.

Seeking an end to a degrading occupation

One man's campaign to help manual scavengers to a better life.

Former manual scavengers at a prayer meeting in Delhi.

New Delhi:  Four decades ago, Bindeshwar Pathak initiated a campaign that liberated more than a million scavengers from the degrading occupation.

“It was very difficult. These people were not willing to give up their jobs as they were considered untouchable and not accepted in mainstream society. They thought what would they do after giving up their work,” Pathak said.

Manual scavengers clean animal or human waste from dry toilets and carry it to disposal grounds elsewhere. It usually involves having to crawl into the toilets and removing the waste with a broom and putting it into a basket.

“I wanted to nip the problem in the bud so I targeted the households that had dry toilets. If there are no dry toilets, there would be no manual scavengers,” he said.

In the late 60s, when Dalits or “untouchables” was more prevalent in India, an incident made Pathak more determined to work for these poor and marginalized people.

“I saw a little boy being chased by a bull. People nearby went to save the boy but then suddenly someone said that the boy is from an untouchable community and everyone stepped back. The boy could not survive the attack. That day I made a promise to myself that I will change the destiny of these people who are looked down upon by other sections of the society,” he said.

Pathak has now rendered 640 towns free from manual scavenging.

The million ex-scavengers are now self-dependent with the help of education and vocational training they received at the Sulabh International, founded by Pathak in 1970. It is the country’s largest nongovernmental organization working in the field of sanitation.

Usha Chaumar said her family had been manual scavengers for generations and feels blessed that she was able to leave it.

Chaumar said that she was scared to give up the task when Pathak first approached her in 2003.

“If we will not do it then someone else will because dry toilets need cleaning,” she said.

But Pathak encouraged her to leave and constructed modern toilets in her clients’ households enabling her move forward, she added.

Guddi Athwan, a former manual scavenger from Alwar, told ucanews.com that higher caste people normally avoided her community, but that was beginning to change.

“With the education and training, we have started earning well. Some women learned tailoring, took up the job of a beautician and some learned to make pickles and other kitchen stuff,” she said.

Some Dalits mingle with the higher caste people and are invited to their functions, she said.

Athwan also said that many former scavengers have seen a dramatic rise in their salaries, earning up to US$166 a month compared to the $3 they earned scavenging.

Pathak, who in 1991 was awarded the Padma Bhushan - the third highest civilian award in India, constructed his first toilet in a household in Ara in eastern India and since then he has made some 1.2 million affordable pour-flush toilets in rural and backward areas of the country.

Apart from giving privacy to the female members of the family, the move has helped in preventing environmental pollution caused by open defecation.

According to India’s 2011 census, nearly half the country’s 1.2 billion people lack access to toilets, leaving no option but to defecate in the open.

According to a UNICEF study, nearly 30 million Indian schoolchildren lack access to toilets, which was cited as a major reason for high drop-out rates, especially among girls; a 2010 government report said 5.9 percent of girls in the 11-14 age groups did not attend school.

Pathak said models of his toilets are hygienically and technically appropriate and socio-culturally acceptable. They are also affordable and easy to construct with locally available materials.

He said he has not patented his techniques as “it is for the people to use it. I want to give it to mankind. It is for them. Why should I patent it?”

Due to his work in the field of hygiene and sanitation with an aim to uplift the poor and marginalized, Pathak, a Hindu, was awarded the international St. Francis prize for the environment by Pope John Paul II in 1992.

In 1974, Pathak introduced the idea of public toilets for the first time in India, building his first public toilet in Patna, state capital of Bihar.

“Initially, people took it up as a joke. Nobody believed that such a concept could work in India where people are so used to defecating in the open,” he said.

There are now 8,000 use-and-pay public toilets in the country operated by his NGO. He has also built a toilet complex in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Apart from constructing toilet facilities, the NGO also provides hygiene and sanitation education in rural and slum areas and provides health care facilities for the poor and the marginalized.

Pathak also has built a Museum of Toilets, a first of its kind in the world, in New Delhi highlighting the history of toilets since 2,500 BC to date.

Calling for a greater attention to the sanitation crisis globally, the United Nations in July adopted a resolution, initiated by Singapore, to declare November 19 as World Toilet Day.

“I was there in the Singapore meeting and proposed the idea of a World Toilet Day and a date for it. The idea was liked by everyone and presented before the UN which accepted it,” Pathak said.

Source: ucanews.com