A recent inter-ministerial task force has estimated the
number of manual scavengers as 53,000. This survey includes data from 121
districts (spread over 12 states) out of more than 600 districts in the
country. This number, though is a four-fold increase from 13,000 odd workers
recorded in 2017, it is also pertinent to note that following surveys that
outlawed manual scavenging in 1993, the central government had counted 7 lakh
manual scavengers by 2004.
Another significant aspect of the latest survey is the very
definition of manual scavenging. The abovementioned estimated number does-not
include those involved in cleaning sewers and septic tanks, and also does-not
include the data from the Railways, the largest employer of manual scavengers.
It also does-not include data from urban areas. Sewer and septic tank cleaning has
also not been included, as according to an official of the Ministry of Social
Justice, “it can’t be completely done away with but can only be regulated with
the use of protective gear, which is allowed under the law”.
It is not very difficult to draw certain common-sense
conclusions from the above description of the state of affairs. Firstly, the
evident reluctance of the states to participate in the exercise of collecting
data on the number of manual scavengers present in the states displays the
amount of concern they have towards the plight of these workers. Since manual
scavenging was outlawed in the year 1993 itself, the states have devised
innovative ways of staying at the right side of the law. These include refusal
to participate in the enumeration exercise itself, refusal to officially verify
figures and so on and so forth. Similarly, central ministries like the Ministry
of Railways and the Ministry of Urban Affairs do-not think it significant enough
to part with the numbers, or for that matter, arrive at them in the first
place.
Further, the central government and the states have very
strategically and conveniently redefined the scope of what constitutes manual
scavenging itself. So sewer and septic tank cleaning does-not even form a part
of manual scavenging for the superb reason that ‘it cannot be done without’. As
a result, sewer and septic tank cleaning is very much lawful, albeit if carried
out with ‘full protective gear’. It is not of much significance however that
such protective gear, which includes 43 kinds of protective equipment and 11
mechanical equipment, is seldom if ever made available. This farcical situation
would have been quite hilarious had it not been so unbelievable, unfortunate,
dangerous, sad and disgusting. The excuse of protective gear is conveniently
use to keep a certain activity out of the purview of law and at the same time
no-one bothers to actually provide that gear. So, in the end, these helpless workers,
continue to indulge in a lawfully prohibited activity, working with their bare
hands and bodies, drinking heavily to be able to tolerate the stench and many a
times losing their very lives in the process. On top of that, they are not even
counted as manual scavengers because, on paper, cleaning of sewers and septic
tanks is allowed because it is supposed to be done with full protective gear
(so what if it actually never is). Unbelievable, but true!
Next, if we look at the practice of manual scavenging in
light of the caste hierarchies prevalent in our nation, it will be amply
evident that manual scavenging has traditionally and even today been relegated
to those present at the bottom-most step of this caste ladder. So, even among
the Dalits, manual scavengers are one of the lower-most sub-groups, and are
treated as such, even by the Dalits who occupy a higher place than them in the
caste hierarchy.
Every death of a manual scavenger momentarily succeeds to
find a place in the news of the day. It results in some token gestures, some
intellectual analysis, some laments, recommendations etc. Then something more
pressing like may be the death of a celebrity, or some unpatriotic act by some
citizen, comes to the fore and these deaths are very easily forgotten. With the
strengthening of the caste hierarchies in the present day scenario, and gradual
dilution of Dalit rights, it is not very difficult to forget those who are at
the lowest rung of the hierarchy as they are neither a significant part of the
vote bank, nor a part of a powerful lobby. In fact had they not been essential
for doing all the dirty and menial work, they would have been quite
dispensable. When such are the sensibilities of the nation that we together
form, then is there something better that can be expected?
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