Right Against Manual Scavenging | 'We Shouldn바카라�t Be Doing This, But Who Will Feed Us Then?'

Last weekend, Manjunath, 33, a manual scavenger from Davanagere in central Karnataka, found himself among engineers and enthusiasts looking for solutions to the unhygienic conditions sanitary workers face. It was a hackathon at Bangalore바카라�s Indian Institute of Science, where, based on the experiences Manjunath and his co-workers recounted, the ideas ranged from safety gear to sensors for toxic fumes. Manjunath cleans pit ­latrines and drains in his shorts and a loincloth. 바카라�We shouldn바카라�t be doing this, but who will feed us then?바카라� he asks. 바카라�We have been doing this all our lives.바카라�

Manjunath reckons there are about 50 manual scavenging workers in Davanagere. Usually, he works in a team of six or seven who share the wages바카라�Rs 700-1,000, depending on the size of the toilet pit. Each job takes a few hours in unbearable stench. 바카라�We drink so we cannot smell anything,바카라� he says. On an average, they clean two pits a day. At the end of the workday, which sometimes stretches till midnight, he would have spent about Rs 200 on brandy, often leaving only Rs 150-200 to take back home.

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New localities have sewage pipelines, but sewer-cleaning machines too have limitations. 바카라�Who will take the silt out?바카라� he asks. In the villages, where he sometimes works, the team typically cleans up a pit, fills the nightsoil in a drum and takes it by tractor to the farms. 바카라�Rich people call us to clean up when there is something they won바카라�t touch. In this work, there will be disease and health problems, and we can바카라�t do anything about it,바카라� says Manjunath, adding that he knows there바카라�s enough money with the government for their rehabilitation, 바카라�but we get no benefits바카라�. His hopes are on getting some aid in order to make a fresh start in another line of work. 바카라�We바카라�ll do something else...become a vegetable vendor, or start a kirana shop. We could do some business바카라�anything to leave this job,바카라� he says.

N. Rangaswami, another sanitary worker from Davanagere, explains why a way out has been difficult. 바카라�People doing this job have the identity stuck to them. Customers come looking for us,바카라� he says.