‘Don’t preach to us, Modi’

When Bezwada Wilson learnt that he had been named winner of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for his campaign to stop manual scavenging, he saw it as acknowledgment of being on the right path. “My fight to eradicate manual scavenging is still on and I will be relaxed the day people are no longer subjected to the inhuman act of removing night soil from dry toilets,” said the 50-year old activist.

As a child of the Thoti tribe, traditionally manual scavengers, he experienced discrimination and humiliation. Thoti is a historically discriminated and untouchable caste of the Kolar Gold Fields area in Karnataka. He was the first in his family to graduate and dare to object to becoming a manual scavenger.

When, after completing his graduation, he went to the employment exchange to get himself enrolled, the officer filled in his desired occupation as ‘scavenger’ without even consulting Wilson. He felt humiliated, tore up the application form in front of all the employment exchange staff and decided to devote his life to fighting manual scavenging.

The first hurdle he faced was from his family who told him to accept that he was a Thoti. Initially, he organised manual scavengers in Karnataka and launched a campaign against manual scavenging (CAM). His work was first acknowledged in Kolar Gold Fields, then all over Karnataka and later in Andhra Pradesh. In 2004 he moved to Delhi to launch a nationwide Safai Karamchari Andolan and filed a public interest litigation in the Supreme Court against the practice of manual scavenging.

In 2009, Wilson was elected an Ashoka Senior Fellow for human rights. A couple of years later the Planning Commission made him convener of a newly constituted sub-group on Safai Karmacharis. His fight for the Dalit cause made him famous and in July this year he was named for the Ramon Magsaysay award acknowledging his fight for the cause of manual scavenging. Wilson spoke on the condition of Safai Karamcharis in India. Excerpts:

Q: How do you see the Prime Minister’s ‘Clean India’ Campaign ?

A: Swachh Bharat campaign is a government of India programme launched by the Prime Minister. I would not go into the purpose and politics behind the Clean India campaign. But I have serious reservations about the way Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched it from a Balmiki Basti. We, the scavenger community, have been doing this for the past 5,000 years. Suddenly, Mr Modi comes and starts preaching cleanliness to us. Imagine starting a literacy campaign from IIT or JNU. If you really want to start a literacy campaign you should go to illiterate people. Similarly if you really want to start a cleanliness campaign, you should go to a Thakur basti or a Brahmin basti or an Agarwal basti, why only a Balmiki basti which has already been engaged in cleanliness for 5000 years. I see a caste-based mindset in the PM launching this campaign from a Balmiki basti. I say slavery is still continuing in modern India. No man from the Pundit or Thakur community, however poor he might be, is engaged in scavenging. It appears the PM still thinks that it is only Dalits who would engage in cleaning and not Thakurs or Pundits. That is my main reservation.

Q: What do you think the government should do to promote cleanliness?

A:  First, I would urge the top brass in the government to change their mindset. Manual scavenging was stopped in 1993, and till date nothing has been done to rehabilitate manual scavengers. Imagine, a few years back funds allocated to rehabilitate people engaged in scavenging was Rs 570 crore, and this year it has been reduced to a mere Rs 10 crore. On the contrary, two years back there was no fund for the Cleanliness campaign, and this year it was Rs two lakh crore and may touch Rs 10 lakh crore in the coming years.

What does this show, that the government has enough funds for making toilets but no money for those who are cleaning these toilets. This is the irony and shows a typical caste-based mindset.

Q: Do you want the government to do away with manual scavenging?

A: We have capacity and capability to go to the moon… planning for Mars… we have built cryogenic engine… launched hundreds of satellites, but ironically have not developed a gadget that would replace manual scavengers or would make their job easy. What we are asking is not rocket science. What we are requesting the government is to develop a scientific way to clean sewers without risking the lives of Safai Karamcharis. We are still using an age-old practice of cleaning sewers. Governments, irrespective of their political affiliations, have done little to save the lives of Dalits engaged in it.

In the past two-three years, more than 2,370 people have lost their lives while cleaning sewers. Several thousands are losing their eyesight due to exposure to methane gas, and thousands of people get jaundice every year due to over exposure to sewer water. You would be shocked to learn that most Safai Karamcharis, who frequently enter sewers, cannot even breathe naturally, they have to make an extra effort to breathe.

Please understand our pain. Our children are not meant to die in sewers or manholes. We are not asking for the moon. We only request the government to stop killing us. There cannot be any explanation for sewer deaths. It is the negligent attitude of the administration that is killing Safai workers. Here you have corporatised toilets…it has suddenly become big business. Unfortunately, you have no system, no mechanism.

The government has proposed to build 12 crore toilets, which means 12 crore septic tanks… but who will clean them? Will these politicians come forward to clean them?

Q: What roadmap do you propose to put an end to the problems of manual scavengers?

A: There are still several lakh dry latrines in the country, mainly in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Gujarat, parts of Uttarakhand and other states. Dalits are collecting night soil every morning from these toilets and transporting it on their heads. First I urge the government to convert these dry latrines into water toilets or build septic tanks. Rehabilitate people engaged in manual scavenging, announce a national scheme for their livelihood. Make modern toilets using latest science and technology. Our community is always ready to help the government in its clean India campaign. But please Mr Prime Minister, stop preaching cleanliness to us Rs we have been doing it for the past 5000 years and know it better than many people.

Q: Has receiving the Magsaysay award brought any change for you?

A: I have nothing, no house, no family. This is the office of my organisation, and this small room is my office by day and my bedroom at night. The award has no meaning to me except that it has acknowledged that we are on the right path. I may get a better hearing now and people might take up my cause more seriously.

Source: The Statesman