Despite untouchability, contractual service, meagre wages – why do Bihar’s scavengers scavenge for a living? Ground report

Despite financial constraints, the community has promising ambitious youth who are defying the notion that individuals from marginalised castes lack a desire for education.

Ankit Pachauri, Translated by Ankit Pachauri

Darbhanga (Bihar): Jyoti, a young woman from the Mehatar community, aspires to pursue a law degree from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. But her likely failure to fulfil this aspiration will be due to financial constraints and not the notion that individuals from marginalised castes lack a desire for education.

The 17-year-old, daughter of a contractual sanitation worker in the Darbhanga Municipal Corporation, has passed her pre-university with good marks from the Bihar School Examination Board in the month of May this year. She wants to fulfil her dream.

Father Praveen Kumar Ram, despite financial constraints, is bearing the expenses of preparing for his daughter to appear in the entrance exams of various government law colleges across the country. Speaking to The Mooknayak correspondent, Praveen Kumar said, “That is all I want – that she flies high and gets all that she deserves. I will ensure that my humble background never becomes a hindrance to her education.”

34-year-old Praveen, a resident of ward number 27, joined the civic body as a sanitation worker on a contract basis 15 years ago with the hope that one day his services will be regularised and he will get a salary based on the Pay Commission recommendations. However, he is still working in the same employment status. After deductions, he gets a salary of Rs 11,500 per month.

Despite not being in a good financial condition, he is ready to bear the expenses of his daughter’s education. But he has two other children (a daughter and a son) to take care of. “I know it is almost impossible for me, but the words of Babasaheb (Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar) – who said, ‘Education is a lioness’s milk, the more one drinks, the more one roars’ – give me strength,” he said.

“Our salary is not enough to meet the basic needs of our families such as food, education, healthcare and emergency savings,” said Praveen Kumar.

“While cleaning drains, public toilets, hospitals, roads and government departments, we deal with mud, human excreta, filth and garbage – prolonged exposure to which puts us at risk of life-threatening diseases. If we fall sick, it takes away our financial stability and the little money we have saved,” Praveen Kumar said, describing his and his fellow workers’ plight.

 ‘Negligence’ towards safety and physical health Several other Safai Karmacharis shared similar complaints, highlighting the alleged neglect towards their well-being.

.Meanwhile, on the condition of anonymity for fear of action against him, a 35-year-old supervisor who has been serving the city’s municipal corporation on a contract basis for the past 16 years said, “After our long-standing demand, we have now been provided with knee-high boots, helmets, surgical masks and cleaner aprons. Isn’t it ridiculous? What use will a surgical mask be in the confined space of a manhole, which contains toxic gases like gasoline vapors, methane, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulphide, etc.? Will it protect us from inhaling such toxic gases?”

He said that when they enter the sewer to clear the blockages, they have to go deep into the dirty water. But they are allegedly not provided with safety glasses to protect their eyes, costumes to avoid skin infections, creams, safety gloves, etc.

“These are the bare minimum, but who cares. Even our lives don’t matter to the government and this society we serve,” he said. According to him, they should be provided with safety gloves, reflective jackets, wader suit covering the whole body, gas protection or chlorine mask, airline breathing apparatus – manually operated air blower, gumboots with steel safety toe, helmet with headlight, safety glasses, cream, barrier, air compressor and searchlight.

“We are also denied regular medical check-ups and vaccination against respiratory and skin diseases,” he alleged, adding, “If illness occurs, even after years of hard work, we are immediately replaced without any monetary compensation.” Asked how it is done when manual scavenging is completely banned, manual cleaning of sewers and septic tanks is required in areas where jetting machines cannot go due to narrow lanes and encroachments. “But it is allowed only in exceptional cases and that too with safety precautions, including equipment and protective gear,” he said. Ironically, all those who spoke to us (the reporter) unanimously alleged that there is no provision for compensation in case of an accident. “After a long fight by our union, the district administration has now agreed to pay an ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh if ??any of us dies while discharging our duties.

.Our demand was Rs 10 lakh. But there is a catch here: it is applicable only to those who are serving the municipal corporation on contract (annexure). It does not include daily wagers and outsourced sanitation workers,” he said. Classification of services, saga of ‘exploitation’ There are three categories of employment of sanitation workers in municipal bodies across Bihar—contract or daily wagers, outsourced and permanent employees. Contract workers are actually daily wagers who get paid directly from the department at the rate of Rs 500 per day and outsourced workers are hired by various companies and NGOs to work on their payrolls. These firms and NGOs allegedly pay their workers a nominal amount but make them sign payment vouchers containing higher amounts. Most of the outsourced workers this correspondent spoke to said they get Rs 7,000-7,500 but are made to sign payment vouchers for Rs 11,000-12,000.

Raj Kumar Ram, 36, joined the civic body in 2001 as a contractual safai karamchari at a monthly remuneration of Rs 1,750. After his 23 years of service, he is now getting Rs 11,300 after deductions.

He was assured that he would be given priority over others if the government notified vacancies for safai karamcharis. Sadly, there have been no appointments in the Group-D category since 2004.

The father of two children aged six and eight asked if this amount was enough to survive in this time of inflation. To take care of his ailing parents and bear the expenses of a family of six, he goes from house to house and asks for cleaning work in his spare time.

“There is a hue and cry over the government’s free ration scheme. Is it possible to survive on 5 kg of wheat and rice? There are other needs at home. We cannot leave our children at the mercy of government schools, where quality education is a far cry. Private educational institutions are no less than an industry, but sadly, there is no escape from it. Most of my earnings are spent on school fees, books and stationery. The much-hyped smart card (Ayushman card issued to people below the poverty line under the central government’s flagship health scheme for free treatment up to Rs 5 lakh) is nothing but a fraud as no private hospital is agreeing to accept it,” he said.

The Bihar government (urban development and housing department) through an administrative order in 2017 had asked all government departments across the state to outsource the work being done by daily wage sanitation workers but the Nitish Kumar-led NDA (National Democratic Alliance) government in Bihar challenged the high court’s decision in the Supreme Court, where the matter is pending.

Vicky, head of an organisation called Mehatar Yuva Sangathan, alleged that the government was indirectly depriving them of reservation benefits. “Since the Constitution guarantees reservation to the Scheduled Caste (SC) population, no government can deny it,” he alleged. And so, the Nitish administration has resorted to outsourcing and contract system to deprive a socially, economically and educationally backward community of its rights.”

When asked to elaborate, he said, “Earlier the government used to employ people from Mehatar and Dom communities as sanitation workers in its various departments. Our community was economically prosperous due to proper pay scales and other employment benefits. Now, private companies and NGOs have been involved who pay meagre amounts and exploit the employees. This has pushed us towards poverty and backwardness.”

The outsourced employees reportedly do not get casual or sick leave except six weekly holidays. They have to work 24 days every month, while contract workers get 26 days of work every month.

She said she faces difficulties in getting emergency leaves sanctioned. She also said she does not get the privilege of enjoying holidays on festivals while her senior officials spend time with their families at home. “We have no personal life. Even if there is a tragedy in the family, we are asked to report the next day,” she alleged.

Gauri Devi, 35, works as a sweeper at the Darbhanga railway junction. She is also on a third party payroll. Earlier, she was made to sign payment vouchers for Rs 12,000 but was paid Rs 7,000 every month. But recently, the tender has been given to a new firm – which will pay her Rs 9,000 every month.

The mother of three could not hide her happiness over the Rs 2,000 pay hike. “Now, I will be able to save something every month. My husband also works as a daily wage labourer in the municipal corporation,” she said. His salary is spent. I take care of the household expenses and pay for the children’s education myself,” she says.

She got her eldest sister married soon after she passed Class 12. But her other two daughters are 15 and 18 years old and are in pre-university and university respectively. She wants them to study further and get government jobs.

She lives in a small hut built on three dhur (3.60 sq ft) of government land. Her husband inherited one kattha (1,361 sq ft) of ancestral land among his four brothers on the outskirts of the city.

Untouchables even among Dalits

The Mehatar and Dom communities are at the lowest rung of the caste-based social order. They are discriminated against not only by the so-called upper castes but also by their fellow SC communities, who are relatively prosperous and consider themselves above them. They suffer many kinds of oppression in Bihar’s feudal-agrarian society.

Rajendra Ram, 52, a research scholar whose Ph.D. dissertation is titled ‘Study of Social Reality with Reference to Mehatar Caste’, states that the ruling class designed the Hindu varnas or classes, which are hierarchical in nature, in such a way that traditionally oppressed communities could never rise up and become part of mainstream society.

He argued that the cosmology of the origin of society was added to the sacred texts to gain religious sanction for dividing society into occupational groups to establish hegemony and control.

Speaking to Mooknayak, general secretary of Bhartiya Bhangi Vikas Manch, an organisation working for the betterment of the Dalit community, said, “We were classified as Shudras and placed on the last rung of the ladder. We were assigned the dirtiest jobs, forced to work as bonded labourers and forced to survive on their leftover food. Our existence was always hated. We were forced to live in settlements on the south side of villages to ensure that the wind does not reach the higher castes after touching us. The wind blows from the east, west and north directions, but not from the south,”

According to him, though untouchability has largely declined in cities, it is still practised in rural areas. Untouchability is not very visible in cities as it is hardly observed physically. Instead, it has transformed into institutional untouchability, where institutions are built to separate people from each other. “Urban planning serves as a model for the exercise of privilege and power, resulting in the creation and maintenance of segregation that reinforces prejudices and stereotypes against particular communities,” he said. He further said, “It is important that we never forget that caste-dominated India is the source of housing segregation. Segregation is a historically widespread trend that results in cities becoming more and more homogenous places where particular classes of people can only have specific rights and the privileges that come with them.” He said that whether it was Auguste Comte (a French philosopher whose work focused on the social structure of Indian society, with special emphasis on caste and race), Emile Durkheim (a French sociologist whose concept of the scientific study of society laid the foundation of modern sociology), Herbert Spencer (a British philosopher and psychologist who incorporated the theory of evolution in society) or CA Moser (a British statistician who researched social phenomena and problems), all concluded that India’s caste system is a stigma; unless it is eradicated, India cannot develop. Ram said that the Mehatar and Dom communities are also considered untouchable by other SC communities such as Paswans, Dhobis, etc. He said, “They come to our functions but do not eat with us. We have to send raw food to their homes.” When asked about privatisation, outsourcing and contractual employment, he said these are the results of globalisation.

“Outsourcing of Group-D employees started from Western Railway when Suresh Kalmadi was the Union Railway Minister. Since it was cost effective as at least four Safai Karmacharis could be appointed either on contract basis or outsourced in the salary of one permanent employee, it was adopted by state governments. In fact it is a conspiracy against the SC community to keep them economically unstable so that they keep struggling to make ends meet and never demand their upliftment,” he said angrily.

Asked what the Dalit leadership in various political parties was doing, he said, “They are not community leaders but power brokers. Once they reach the corridors of power, they indulge in nepotism and forget their communities. Whether it is late Ram Vilas Paswan (former Union minister), Jitan Ram Manjhi (former Bihar chief minister), Ashok Choudhary (minister of building construction department in Bihar government), Maheshwar Hazari (deputy speaker of Bihar assembly), all served only their families.” Except for a few thousand high school teachers and inspectors in Bihar, he said, no appointments were made in the police during Lalu Prasad Yadav’s 15-year rule. In the 2004 assembly elections, Dalits voted en masse for the Nitish Kumar-led NDA. But he went a step further and stopped appointments of sanitation workers.

Raja Ram, 42, an outsourced sanitation worker at an operation theatre in Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital (DMCH), said he feels hurt when he is called a “lower caste”. “Why should there be discrimination on the basis of birth in a particular community? We have no control over birth and death. If a child is born to ‘upper caste’ parents, he will indeed be of ‘upper caste’; but if a child is born in a Dalit community, he will be considered a ‘lower caste’. Why? As human beings, there is no difference in their physical character,” he said. He gets Rs 8,000 per month but signs payment vouchers for Rs 12,000. “Can a family of four be taken care of properly in this amount, leave alone the education of children?” he asked. Suraj Kumar Choudhary, 21, who has graduated in English literature and is preparing for the civil services, wondered why there is caste-based untouchability when even Hindu religious texts deny it. “The Bhagavad Gita says, ‘The one who has the knowledge of Brahman is a Brahmin’. He can be anyone, irrespective of his caste. It does not say that only those born in a Brahmin family will be Brahmins,” he argued. He quoted Bal Gangadhar Tilak, who said, “If God believed in untouchability, I would not call him God.”

Courtesy : Hindi News