Manual scavenging is a reality and Dalit women, particularly, will be forced to shoulder the burden of cleaning dry pits.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi frequently tweets appreciation for on-ground workers of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA). One such widely shared post was an image of the secretary in the ministry of drinking water and sanitation, Parameswaran Iyer, going down a double-pit toilet in a rural home and cleaning it. He was lauded because he“did not even use gloves”.
Meanwhile, thousands of sanitary workers and manual scavengers continue to go down sewers sans proper protective gears every day. Many die in the process. According to government data submitted to the Rajya Sabha earlier this year, 323 sanitation workers have perished on the job since 1993. However, the Magsaysay award-winning Safai Karamchari Andolan (SKA), the petitioner in the Supreme Court case on sanitation worker deaths, say they have collected information on atleast 1,560 deaths during the same period.
It would seem that the important ‘c’ in Swachh Bharat is not cleanliness but caste.
And yet, the silence of repeated governments in acknowledging caste as integral to India’s sanitation policy is resounding.
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