Manual Scavenging - A Critical Analysis
MANUAL SCAVENGING – A CRITICAL ANALYSIS
- Ishani Mishra, Symbiosis Law School, Pune
You wake up one fine morning. A filthy, nauseating stink almost suffocates you and you gaze out of your window to check the source of the stink. You see eternal piles of filth, clogging the entire city. The “Safai Karmacharis” have gone on an indefinite strike. This scenario might well be a fiction today, but may become a reality tomorrow. Until now, we have chosen to live in apathy, and have chosen to sugar-coat the grim realities of millions of manual scavengers by raking up lengthy laws, judicial rulings and policies, that remain only on paper. But unfortunately, we,the privileged, educated class,have failed to fearlessly shake the deep roots of this utterly inhuman and derogatory practice of manually handling human excreta. An even more dangerous trend which has emerged recently, is to glorify the practice, by attaching names like “health workers”, “sanitation workers”, to the oppressed classes, forced into this profession. No one wakes up one day and chooses to be a manual scavenger.It is centuries of caste-based discrimination and social exclusion that coerces members of particular castes like the Balmiki caste to step into this life-risking practice.[1]
Did caste discrimination disappear with the enactment of the SC/ST Atrocities Act, or with the recently enacted Manual Scavengers Act of 2013? One can confidently state that the idea of caste is so intrinsically ingrained into our identities that unconsciously, we fail to recognise that a major chunk of who we could become and what resources we could access is because of the caste we were born in. While laws aim to ban “untouchability” and casteism, every institution of the State fails to acknowledge, that the real culprit behind this practice, is the concept of “caste” itself. Once we acknowledge that we are, say, a Brahmin, we indirectly acknowledge our superiority in the social hierarchy, because religiously, and socially, “caste” has served as a means to segregate society. The argument that in ancient times, caste was dictated by occupation may be true, but today it has surely reversed. Today, “Your caste determines your occupation”. Quotations of prevalence of manual scavenging in scriptures of ancient times may be logically justified by the fact that there was no technology for waste disposal back then, but how do we justify the practice today, when despite millions being allocated for development of sanitary toilets and waste management systems, we are unable to provide basic PPE to sanitation workers?[2] It is indeed a shameful irony that we have billions to spend on a metro project, but not enough to uplift manual scavengers from theirfateful lives.
To dig deeper, there are enough provisions in law, seeking to abolish manual scavenging, but there is no accountability. Although the newly enacted Manual Scavengers Act provides for punishment for violations of the provisions, it is a striking anomaly that one of the largest employers of manual scavengers is the Indian Railways, which functions under the government. Local Panchayats and Municipal Corporations have historically been so inclined towards employing manual scavengers, that despite modernisation of sewage systems, they continue to hire workers from a certain caste to collect and dispose of waste.[3] One shocking fact that emerged was that manual scavengers often receive threats if they voluntarily leave their profession, and are excluded from village communities for demanding a fair wage or social benefits.[4]It is also a grim reality that this discriminatory attitude often receives political backing, and is propagated by several institutions at all levels [5], including the police and bureaucrats, who all come from the same social milieu and share a common, often degrading view of the manual scavengers. From 1993 to 2013, not a single conviction was secured under the earlier Manual Scavengers Act[6]. Before delving into the causes of such a blatant violation of law, it is pertinent to note an important section from the 2013 Act[7]:
I. S. 5 - Prohibition of insanitary latrines and employment and engagement of manual scavenger:
(1) Notwithstanding anything inconsistent therewith contained in the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, no person,local authority or any agency shall, after the date of commencement of this Act, -
(a) construct an insanitary latrine; or
(b) engage or employ, either directly or indirectly, a manual scavenger, and every person so engaged or employed shall stand discharged immediately from any obligation,express or implied, to do manual scavenging.
While the 2013 Act supposedly expanded the ambit of the 1993 Act, by seeking to absolutely abolish the employment of manual scavengers, the ground reality is in stark contrast to the provisions.The SC, in the case of Safai Karmachari Andolan v. UOI [8], severely denigrated the practice, and held it to be in violation of international conventions like the UDHR and established guidelines for completely eradicating the practice and rehabilitating former manual scavengers. In another such landmark case, Delhi Jal Board v. National Campaign for Dignity and Rights of Sewerage and Allied Workers[9], the SC shunned the elitist mindset of the privileged classes and highlighted the deaths and suffering caused to manual scavengers due to the insensitivity of the government. Despite judicial intervention, a collective will to end the practice has been absent in the lowest rungs of the society.
State institutions can never successfully end the practice, unless it is voluntarily shunned by the general public.Most high-sounding suggestions for reform, just remain works of intellectual excellence, and find no place, in actual practice. While everyone accepts that none of us would “choose” to clean human excreta, we shamelessly glorify the practice and become inconvenienced, if these workers absent themselves even for a day. Apart from the existing community initiatives, financial assistance and social welfare schemes, what we need today, is not just legal reform, but an urgent social revolution to free the manual scavengers, who are treated no better than slaves. There are three ways this can be done, alongside the existing remedies. The details of all manual scavengers must be linked to social security themes, after conducting a nationwide survey, and an initial amount must be deposited into their accounts to restart their livelihood. This amount should be enough to support them for a period of at least five years, lest they fall back into manual scavenging by threats received from the community. Secondly, heads of local bodies must face criminal action and suspension for the non-fulfilment of their obligations under the 2013 Act. A team of experts, consisting of social activists who have fought caste discrimination, and other such qualified luminaries must be officially sanctioned by the government to enforce the suspension and punishments. This is because it is often found that State agencies are equally complicit in propagating the practice.
Lastly, there needs to be religious reform. Annihilation of caste is not synonymous to degradation of any religion or faith, and if any faith solely relies on caste for its existence, it does not deserve to flourish, at the expense of the sufferings of millions. If we shun slavery and support the idea of caste, then our hypocrisy knows no bounds. In the future, legislation must aim at abolishing the existence of caste-based hierarchy and the concept of caste itself, so that there is no room for any discrimination. How will discrimination end when the cause for such discrimination still persists in every household? No amount of religious sentiment must deter such an abolition of caste. It must be made criminal to disguise casteism under the guise of religious belief. To conclude, we must all ask an uncomfortable question to ourselves, “Do our cultures thrive so heavily on caste, that if caste were to be abolished tomorrow, such cultures would collapse?
REFERENCES :-
[1] Abhishek Gupta, ‘Manual Scavenging: A Case of Denied Rights’ (2016) ILI Law Review <http://ili.ac.in/pdf/paper3.pdf> accessed 10th April, 2020
[2] Ravi Shankar Shukla, ‘Manual Scavenging: The Story of Untouchables Among Untouchables’ (Nov 6, 2009) SSRN https://ssrn.com/abstract=1501265 accessed 10th April, 2020
[3] Bindeshwar Pathak, ‘Road to Freedom: A Sociological Study on the Abolition of Scavenging in India’ (Motilal Banarsidas Publishers 1999) 38
[4] Hency Thacker, ‘Manual Scavenging: A law without enforcement’ (Feb 20, 2020) CSR Journal https://thecsrjournal.in/manual-scavenging-a-law-without-enforcement/ accessed 10th April, 2020
[5] Aditi Yadav, ‘The Scourge of Manual Scavenging’ (Oxfam India, 31 Jul 2019) https://www.oxfamindia.org/blog/manual-scavenging-in-india accessed 9th April, 2020.
[6] The Employment as Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Toilets (Prohibition) Act 1993
[7] The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act 2013
[8] Safai Karmachari Andolan v. UOI, 2014 (4) SCALE 165
[9]Delhi Jal Board v. National Campaign for Dignity and Rights of Sewerage and Allied Workers, 72011 (8) SCC 568
