Dignity is what Dalit bastis of west UP want

IN the rural expanse of western Uttar Pradesh's Hathras and Firozabad, where the pastoral beauty belies deep-seated challenges, those living in Dalit colonies want basic necessities and dignity and freedom from filth and sewage.

In Hathras's Pilakhana, the air is heavy with the stench of stagnant water that surrounds modest homes, many of which are precariously perched in disrepair. For Aarti Devi, a Dalit woman whose days are consumed by cleaning the households of so-called upper caste people, her own living conditions are in stark contrast with the cleanliness she strives to achieve elsewhere.

"Our houses are swallowed by filth and sewage. We clean the homes of others, but our own lives are submerged in dirt. Where is swachhta (cleanliness) here," asked Devi, apparently referring to the government's Swachh Bharat campaign.