A People Scattered
There exist individuals who are bound by the chains of destitution in the shadows, stripped of their dignity, self-worth, and health on a daily basis. There exist individuals who are viewed as subhuman by their own governments, forced into labor so unimaginably degrading that they themselves believe they are undeserving of liberation. They are the manual scavengers of India.
Manual scavenging, the act of manually cleaning human waste out of pits and tanks, is a soul-draining occupation reserved for India’s lowest caste: Dalits, or “untouchables.” The caste system is widely outdated, and its influence over Indian society has declined with the progression of time, but it still remains the root cause of the dehumanization and mistreatment of hundreds of thousands of people. A staggering proportion of India’s population uses dry latrines instead of toilets with sewage pipes, which are pits in the ground that can only be cleaned manually. Untouchables are often made to work from dawn to dusk scooping feces out of holes, loading it into baskets on their heads, and dumping it into ditches. None are given gloves, masks, or sanitation equipment and are resultantly often stricken by disease and deformation. The pay for the job is abysmal, barely affording them enough meals to fuel their hard labor—let alone quality education for their children or other basic necessities.
Inhumanity aside, Dalits cannot simply walk away from this occupation. Their perceived low societal status prevents them from being able to find any other work, as they’re often turned down from other jobs or even barred from applying. They are literally forced to choose between scavenging for meager pay and starving to death due to no income. The cycle of Dalit mistreatment has grown so severe that Dalits themselves believe they are worth less than others; many begin scavenging during childhood and are raised to be complacent with the occupation and their role. This cycle is virtually unbreakable in its present state—after all, if both Indian citizens and Dalits themselves are too blinded by an outdated social stratification system to recognize the glaring violation of human rights that is manual scavenging, what can be done to eradicate it?
The Indian government is another obstacle to the liberation of Dalits from this cruel fate. Instead of taking action against scavenging, high-level government officials try to conceal the issue altogether by falsely stating that the practice barely exists anymore. They deny the existence of the caste system while simultaneously perpetuating it in their legislative districts. Their false reports, along with the Indian public’s apathy, blind the rest of the world from the issue. Additionally, India’s government has taken little to no initiative toward removing dry latrines and installing sewage systems in India’s underserved districts. The existence of dry latrines is the reason manual scavenging exists—by doing nothing to replace them, the government perpetuates Dalit mistreatment and marginalization by preserving the demand for scavengers. Because the government refuses to publicly acknowledge the issue at all, they also provide zero assistance to the workers, giving them no personal protective equipment or cleaning supplies that would at least enable them to perform their labor with dignity and safety. It is virtually slavery—Dalits are left with no other option but to do what they are told. If one attempts to protest their unsafe conditions or demeaning work, he or she is simply fired, left to starve, and replaced by another.
Though decasticizing the Indian mind will be no easy task, it is the only way for Dalits to be truly liberated. The first step toward doing so is raising awareness and destroying the apathy that is directed towards the matter. The clouds that have been obscuring this widespread issue must be parted, and though the world has been (literally) plagued with countless issues, international attention must also be drawn to the invisible hell that millions of our fellow humans have endured for centuries. India-based anti-scavenging organizations such as Safai Karmachari Andolan have already begun to raise awareness in India, but this is nowhere near enough action—a violation of human rights this blatant should be brought to the attention of people all across the globe. By increasing acknowledgement of the problem, we’ll hopefully get a step closer to pressuring those in power to systemically dismantle caste discrimination and provide one of the world’s most alienated groups of people with what they deserve as much as the rest of us: safety, dignity, self-worth, and freedom.
Image sourced from theconversation.com
