‘Rich making money out of machines’

Rachna Seth in New Delhi

A missing political will has ensured manual scavenging goes on in the country, says Bezwada Wilson, who has been fighting for the rights of manual scavengers since 1982. He saw his parents and brother do this undignified work and decided to be the voice of their ilk. Wilson started a movement, the Safai Karamchari Andolan, to fight for the rights of sanitation workers. It has 6,000 volunteers with 200 full-time employees, all safai karamcharis. 

Despite there being a law against manual scavenging, why is this inhuman practice still prevailing in India?

There surely is a law, but the law enforcement agencies lack the will to enforce it. Laws for the marginalised, poor and women do not work, but schemes like GST and Mid-Day Meal get implemented. During the Commonwealth Games, even an illiterate taxi driver knew the lane marked for the Games and did not dare to enter it. 

Do the workers have all the equipment?

Sewerage is not a place for a human to enter.  The government should develop sewage plants in a way that, if need be, a man can enter it fully-equipped. But we have no kits or sewage suits for safai karamcharis. The government provides only gloves and not all the workers have that privilege too.

Are people fully aware of the ill-effects of scavenging? 

No sensitisation has been. Had it been conducting awareness programme against manual scavenging, there would not have been so many deaths due to it.

The government says manual scavenging has been wiped out and it is providing machines to workers. However, reports of death due to scavenging are continuing to come. Why?

There is an acute shortage of machines. Even the Ministry claims that the number of machines is insufficient to complete the task. The government’s claim that the tender of new machines was mainly given to safai karamcharis is a sheer lie. No safai karamchari has been given the tender. Only the rich people are making money out of it. No safai karamchari has been given the job of handling these machines. They are still doing it with bare hands.

How did the government react to your movement?

The law came in 1993, but there never was any proper implementation. We were fighting for the rights of manual scavengers, but the government thought we were against them. Even the Supreme Court, in its ruling, said it was the duty of the government to implement the law. 

So, what can bring the change?

Orientation is the need for the hour. Approach of the government, bureaucracy and judiciary towards issues like manual scavenging, deaths of sanitation workers or a rehabilitation scheme for the poor is the biggest problem. 

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan helped?

The PM is only talking about building new toilets. He never talks about the problems of scavengers or deaths of sanitation workers. He has never said who will clean the human excreta from these toilets.