It is gratifying that in the midst of the rapid economic engine propelling India’s growth, humanists are emerging to offer a healthy blend of social activism to help India’s largely forgotten and ignored underclass. A Stanford University graduate student recently visited India to document the pioneering work of Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, a modern day Mahatma Gandhi, who has provided much needed relief and dignity to India’s scavengers. These ‘untouchables’ have traditionally been condemned to a life of servitude carrying and disposing human excreta. It is estimated that 700 million Indians defecate in fields, roads and even along railway tracks scenes that were graphically encapsulated by V.S. Naipaul and Ronal Segal. A staggering 110 million homes have no toilet facilities and 10 million homes have only bucket toilets. The lack of adequate sanitation is responsible for rampant disease especially amongst India’s children. It is estimated 1 million children die every year from dehydration caused by open defecation.
Women would be restricted to early morning hours or late evenings when they felt their modesty would not be compromised. The appalling lack of sanitation and institutionalized caste discrimination prompted Pathak to abandon his ‘safe’ teaching position as a social scientist and seek a solution to India’s lack of sanitation facilities. Although, Pathak did not possess the necessary technical skills, it seems like an unseen divine hand guided his work and gave impetus to his missionary zeal. What has emerged from his efforts, was a low cost pilot called Sulabh Shauchalaya (two-pit pour flush toilet) based on a UN model of a human waste hygienic water disposal system that he modified and implemented.
Initially, Pathak encountered stiff resistance and derision and the public shunned his facility. However, he was able to overcome this inertia when he reminded the public that the sanitation facilities would offer a safe and dignified place for their womenfolk. He charges a nominal fee of only R2 and uses the profits to expand his facilities and offer free education and training to India’s untouchables. Since his humble beginnings, Pathak’s plants have generated bio-energy and produced bio-fertilizers, liquid solid waste management and integrated rural development. He has gained international fame for his work to lift India’s poor and integrate them to mainstream society. It is laudable that Pathak has rejected all the trappings of fame and fortune and remains firmly committed to his social cause in offering succor to India’s social outcastes.
Dr. Pathak traveled all over the country, visited and lived with scavengers in their bastis, studied their habits and social mores (he did his Ph. D. on scavenging), their history and geographical spread to eventually declare that scavengers were a special class united in their miseries and social degradation
Dr. Pathak observed after studying scriptures that scavenging has no religious sanction and, hence, those who practice untouchability commit a sin; it is unproductive and revolting to manually clean excreta and we are wasting the waste which can be profitably used to raise farm production and produce biogas.
Dr. Pathak lived with scavenger families, and did rigorous research, before he launched the movement. Following rapid adoption of the Sulabh technology of pour-flush toilet system, more than 240 towns have been freed from scavenging and 50,000 scavengers liberated and resettled in other professions. It was possible by converting 10,00,000 bucket latrines into Sulabh toilets. Moreover, Sulabh has built 3,200 community toilets with bath, laundry and urinal facilities operated on pay-and-use basis. Sulabh is now operating in 338 districts of 25 states with over 50,000 trained and experienced workers.
Now Sulabh is operating and maintaining more than 5,500 community complexes in 1075 towns across the country. One such complex is in Bhutan. These complexes have electricity and 24-hours water supply. The complexes have separate enclosures for men and women. The users are charged nominal sum for using toilets and bath facilities. Some of the Sulabh complexes are also provided with bath with shower facility, cloak-rooms, telephone and primary healthcare. These complexes have been widely welcomed both by the people and the authorities due to their cleanliness and good management. Pay-and-use system ensures self-sustainability without any burden on public exchequer or local bodies. The complexes have also improved the living environment considerably.
Sulabh has set up a number of vocational training institutes. Here liberated scavengers, their sons and daughters and persons from other weaker sections of society are given training in various vocations like computer technology, typing and shorthand, electrical trade, woodcraft, leather craft, diesel and petrol engineering, cutting and tailoring, cane furniture making, masonry work, motor driving etc. The purpose of imparting vocational training to them is to give them new means of livelihood, alleviate poverty and bring them into the mainstream of society.
Sulabh has set up an English medium School in Delhi for children of the scavengers, the first of its kind in India. Half the number of children are from scavenger families and the remaining half from other castes. This heterogeneous composition ensures that there is enough interaction between kids of scavengers and others. The school aims to prepare children from weaker sections of society for a better life. It brings quality education within the reach of boys and girls from scavenger families.
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