Karnataka's Safaikarmacharis - Still In The Trench With The Stench!

The Government of India had set a target date of 31st December, 2007 by which the obnoxious and inhuman practice of manual scavenging would be eradicated totally and formulated a National Action Plan to achieve this. Nine years later, the practice is still on in Karnataka and is not about to disappear.

- Pushpa Achanta

Caste holds people up, and back. It doesn’t allow them upward mobility in the absence of education and opportunities. And despite the Constitution guaranteeing a set of fundamental rights to every Indian, including the right to equality, the state itself has conspired to keep large sections of people stuck in the caste quagmire.

Take the Safaikarmachari or the manual scavenger. A Safaikarmachari is a person engaged in or employed for manually carrying human excreta or any sanitation work. It continues to exist in India despite loud that it has been eradicated. Looking at the current status of the Safaikarmachari and the conditions under which he / she works, it’s a given that her fate is sealed. It is impossible for her to pull herself out of the given bracket assigned to her by her caste. Her chances for a better her life are little or nothing.

“I have been cleaning the town municipality office, including its washrooms, in Tumakuru for over 15 years. My husband also works in the informal sector. Neither of us are permanent employees. Our wages are lousy,” says Christina (name changed), a Safaikarmachari.

The 50-year-old says Safaikarmacharis have been clamouring for increments but in vain. Their repeated requests to be made permanent employees have also not elicited any response.